By Elizabeth Sewell | March 11th, 2010 – 12:00am

 To say John L. Smith knows Las Vegas is an understatement. After nearly a quarter-century as the lead columnist at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, there are not many subjects he hasn’t tackled—from the mob to mining. He writes five columns a week (including one for the company’s rural Nevada newspapers) and still has had enough material to write 12 books. He is especially attracted to “the great comic characters in Nevada”—namely those who don’t mean to be funny. While nobody in the local media is better with the skewer, Smith is also the consummate Irishman, often exposing a softer side in his column. It was in that space that he spoke of his father’s death and his daughter Amelia’s battle with cancer, which began in 2004 with the diagnosis of her brain tumor. Amelia is now in remission, and Smith, 49, credits her illness with changing his outlook on life and his approach to living in Las Vegas.

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Smith carries the distinction of being a fourth-generation Nevadan, an award-winning columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the author of a dozen nonfiction books, including Sharks in the Desert and Bluegrass Days, Neon Nights, as well as a contributing author to Restless City, the serial novel project of the book festival.

This event marked the second annual presentation of the Crystal Book Mark Award. The first went to Kris Darnall, one of the originators of the Vegas Valley Book Festival and a colleague at Nevada Humanities. The rules dictate that the award cannot go to anyone currently on the planning or literary committee of the VVBF and that the recipient must have made a major contribution to the encouragement of reading in the community through service or through a body of work that enriches, clarifies, or encourages reading and writing in and about the Vegas Valley.

This year’s presentation took place at the Clark County Library at a panel led by Smith entitled “Amelia’s Long Journey: The Challenge of Writing What You Know.” In Amelia’s Long Journey (Stephens Press) Smith tells of the joys of becoming a parent and raising a beautiful little girl, and the terror of almost losing her. With the skill of a journalist and the heart of a father, Smith lovingly chronicles Amelia’s life: her early carefree years, the diagnosis of a cancerous brain tumor, the surgeries, the treatments, the remissions, the relapse, the recovery, as well as the courage, humor, and optimism she showed throughout.

Amelia’s Long Journey is not only a story about a brave girl’s fight against cancer, but a story about a precious little girl’s love for life. Proceeds of the book benefit Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Nevada, Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation, and St. Baldrick’s Foundation.