He wrote the New Mexico Trilogy - The Milagro Beanfield War (1974), The Magic Journey (1978), and The Nirvana Blues (1981) - as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction.

[3] Nichols later returned to the United States, living in SoHo, Manhattan for a short time before settling in Taos, New Mexico in 1969.

[4] The trilogy consists of The Milagro Beanfield War (which was adapted into a movie of the same title directed by Robert Redford), The Magic Journey, and The Nirvana Blues.

He also had a hand, uncredited due to a decision in an arbitration with the Writers Guild, in the Oscar-winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Costa-Gavras' 1982 film Missing.

[6] Nichols also has written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa.

[8] He is the subject of a feature documentary by director Kurt Jacobsen and co-producer Warren Leming entitled The Milagro Man: The Irrepressible Multicultural Life and Literary Times of John Nichols, which premiered at the 2012 Albuquerque Film Festival and screened at a dozen more film festivals.