John's latest novel, Edge of Nowhere, is forthcoming in late 2010 in the United Kingdom. Raven Speaks is due out in February 2010.

Nobelist Elie Wiesel called Smelcer's 2009 novel The Great Death "Stunning!" Tony Hillerman called it "a small miracle", and Frank McCourt said he "couldn't put it down".

His novel The Trap (2006), published in the United States and the United Kingdom, won the $10,000 James Jones Prize, was named a Notable Book by the New York Public Library, and was an American Library Association BBYA Top Ten Pick and a VOYA Top Shelf Selection.

His autobiography appears in Here First, edited by B. Swann (Modern Library/Random House, 2000).

Smelcer's Alaska Native myths appear in The Last New Land (Alaska Northwest Books, 1996), a collection of the greatest Alaskan literature of all time. John’s stories are included in the volume alongside Jack London, Robert Service, Louis L’Amour, and James Michener (who, along with John Gardner and Joseph Campbell, personally encouraged John to become a writer).

His book on Alaska Native mythology, The Raven and The Totem, now in its 15th printing, features a foreword by Joseph Campbell, who helped George Lucas create the archetypal stories and characters in Star Wars.

In 1995, John edited the anthology Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry, which was taught throughout the nation at colleges and universities. The anthology included poems by Sherman Alexie, Joy Harjo, James Welch, Diane Glancy, Joseph Bruchac, Simon Ortiz, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, and Jim Barnes.

Over the years, he continues as author-editor to update several dictionaries of Alaska Native American languages — Alutiiq (Prince William Sound Region) and Athna Athabaskan. To create both documents, he studied the languages for years with every living elder who spoke the Alaskan Native languages. Both languages are endangered, with few living elders, all 30—50 years older than John, still speaking the language today. He makes the two Alaska Native American language dictionaries freely available on his website [4] along with a scholarly article about Native American languages.

Smelcer has collaborated with many of America’s greatest writers and scholars, including Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and Pulitzer Prize winner, edited John's novel, Edge of Nowhere (2010), months before his death in July 2009; John Updike with The Binghamton Poems (2009); Nobelist Saul Bellow and Ursula K. Le Guin with Stealing Indians; Noam Chomsky with The Complete Ahtna Poems; Carl Sagan with Tracks; Gary Snyder with In the Shadows of Mountains; Denise Levertov and Allen Ginsberg with Songs from an Outcast; Michael Dorris and James Welch with Darkness and Other Stories; Ted Hughes (Sylvia Plath's ex-husband) with Raven Speaks; Noam Chomsky and Harvard University Professor Steven Pinker, a leading cognitive psychologist and author of The New York Times best-seller, The Language Instinct, provided a foreword to The Ahtna Noun Dictionary (revised 2010). Even the Dalai Lama provided a blurb to John's children's picture book, Grafton Street.

Smelcer's writing has been nominated for dozens of literary awards, including The James Jones Prize, a prestigious award for the best first novel in the nation; the Kessler Prize [5] for the best book of poetry published in America by a poet over 40; and Without Reservation was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Award for poetry in 2004. His books have been nominated for major American literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the American Library Association Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the Booktrust Award (UK). His books have been nominated for numerous foreign literary awards as well.

For over a decade, John was co-judge of the National Poetry Book Award with poets Allen Ginsberg, James Dickey, John Updike, Denise Levertov, X. J. Kennedy, Donald Justice, Thom Gunn, Stanley Kunitz and David Ignatow. John Smelcer is the co-founder of several major American literary awards, including the William Stafford Prize for Poetry, The X. J. Kennedy Prize for Nonfiction, The Mary Shelley Prize for Fiction, and the John Gardner Prize for Playwriting. Smelcer also collaborated with three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee to (unsuccessfully) establish the Edward Albee Prize for Playwriting.

John Smelcer is the Clifford D. Clark Fellow of English and creative writing at Binghamton University, State University of New York . In January 2010, John received The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research.