Behind the Mic and Between the Pages: Sharing Award-Winning Stories and Season Nine Preview with Emily Withnall & Andrea Klunder
00:00:00
Andrea Klunder: Welcome to Encounter Culture. I am producer and editor, Andrea Klunder.
00:00:08
Emily Withnall: And I’m Emily Withnall, host of Encounter Culture and editor of El Palacio.
00:00:14
Andrea Klunder: And we have some exciting news. We are beginning season nine coming off of two sets of awards for both Encounter Culture and El Palacio. Emily, what happened this year?
[Upbeat guitar music swells.]
00:00:27
Emily Withnall: So yeah, we won fourteen awards in total for El Palacio and for Encounter Culture. It’s all for 2024 content.
00:00:36
Andrea Klunder: Hold on. 2024 content?
00:00:38
Emily Withnall: Yeah.
00:00:38
Andrea Klunder: Oh!
00:00:39
Emily Withnall: It’s all for 2024 content. Because the way the award season works, you submit all of your work from the year at the end of the year, and then you find out the following year.
So we’ve done amazing work this year as well, but we won’t know what awards we’re winning for 2025 until next year. But yes, we did win fourteen awards for the magazine and for the podcast. Six of the awards came from New Mexico Press Women earlier this year, including a silver award for the Encounter Culture podcast.
And I’m sorry — I’m going to have to look at the list, because there’s so many.
00:01:20
Andrea Klunder: “I have to look at the list because we won so many!” (laughs)
Music transitions to jazzy keys.
00:01:23
Emily Withnall: So many.
There were two first-place wins, three second-place wins, and one third-place win. That included the podcast, editing categories, and editing a full issue — the Fall 2024 issue of El Palacio.
I also won a first-place award for editing from the National Federation of Press Women, and then seven awards from the International Regional Magazine Association. I went to Calgary a few weeks ago to receive those awards and didn’t know until the ceremony that the magazine and podcast had won. The podcast won silver again, and we were finalists for Magazine of the Year.
00:02:19
Andrea Klunder: Wow.
00:02:20
Emily Withnall: Yes, and we also had writers and photographers recognized. Nikki Nojima Louis won a gold award for her essay in the Winter 2024 issue about her experience with Japanese American internment. She was four years old when her father was sent to the internment camp in Santa Fe, and her essay was incredibly moving and powerful.
Music shifts to piano and strings.
00:02:57
Andrea Klunder: So what does all of that mean? What is the significance of winning awards in our industry?
00:03:07
Emily Withnall: For me, it felt very validating. El Palacio is a very small team — I’m the only full-time staff member — though I work with an excellent design team and many contractors.
To see the magazine and podcast win fourteen awards for 2024 was incredibly encouraging. I work very intentionally to curate stories and find the right writers to tell specific histories of art and culture in New Mexico. It’s one thing to write about Japanese American internment, and another entirely to publish a first-person account from someone whose family experienced it here.
00:04:13
Andrea Klunder: Mm-hmm.
00:04:13
Emily Withnall: The awards recognize the writers, photographers, designers, and producers involved — and they also signal to readers and listeners that this is high-quality work worth their time.
Music fades.
00:04:41
Andrea Klunder: Who is El Palacio for?
00:04:43
Emily Withnall: The magazine was founded in 1913, just one year after New Mexico became a state. It began as an archaeology pamphlet and has evolved over 112 years into something much broader.
It’s for people interested in art, history, and culture — which covers almost everything. I see my role as building an archive. These aren’t breaking news stories; they’re pieces people can return to again and again.
00:06:14
Andrea Klunder: Our podcast data shows our highest listenership is in the Southwest, with strong audiences across the U.S. and even internationally.
00:06:14
Emily Withnall: Yes, and topics like archaeology, dinosaurs, and early human history have broad appeal no matter where you live.
[Music swells and fades out.]
00:07:43
Andrea Klunder: And recently you had the opportunity to do a reading. This is part of a series, right, of readings that you’re doing for El Palacio?
00:07:52
Emily Withnall: Yeah. When I started this role, I began doing panel readings for every issue. Since the magazine is quarterly, I invite a few contributors from each issue to come and read from their articles or essays, followed by a Q&A.
The Q&A is the most interesting part. The audiences are very engaged and ask thoughtful questions, and it really expands the conversation beyond the page.
Most recently, I did a special reading with just the author of the article on the Gallup Coal Wars from the Fall 2025 issue of El Palacio. We did that because I couldn’t get all the panelists to Gallup — it’s a long drive — so I invited just the author to present there.
This history of striking coal miners between 1933 and 1935 is still very present in Gallup, even nearly a hundred years later. The author gave a presentation and showed historic photographs that also appear in the magazine.
00:09:30
Andrea Klunder: Oh, wow.
00:09:31
Emily Withnall: It was a really dynamic moment. One person in the audience was the grandson of a man who had been arrested for shooting the sheriff during that incident. And the current sheriff of Gallup was also there.
He talked about wanting to see some of the historic images because they didn’t have clear photos of the sheriff who was shot — the only sheriff in Gallup’s history to be killed while on duty.
So we had people in the room approaching the history from very different perspectives. The writer is continuing this project beyond the article, and he met people who could help him identify individuals in photographs he’d been struggling to identify.
00:10:11
Andrea Klunder: Oh, that’s so cool.
00:10:11
Emily Withnall: It really is an ongoing project now, and he’s made important connections in Gallup.
00:10:20
Andrea Klunder: And we’re doing an episode related to this in the upcoming season of Encounter Culture.
00:10:26
Emily Withnall: We are. David Correia, the author, will be joining us to talk about Tom Mullarkey, the photographer who documented the events in Gallup between 1933 and 1935.
Mullarkey ran a photo shop and had a very distinct photographic sensibility. David will talk about his work in Gallup and Mullarkey’s role as a Western photographer.
00:11:01
Andrea Klunder: What else do we have in store for listeners this season?
00:11:05
Emily Withnall: We’ll be talking with Jennifer Hasty, who directs Wonders on Wheels — the Department of Cultural Affairs’ mobile museum.
They have a large RV with a mini exhibition inside that travels around the state, and the theme changes every year. We’ll be talking about their current exhibition on New Mexico’s historic sites, including a newly added site in the southern part of the state.
We’ll also look ahead to next year’s theme, which will focus on New Mexico’s role in U.S. 250. Since New Mexico wasn’t part of the country 250 years ago, it offers a very unique perspective.
00:12:03
Andrea Klunder: Do people call it the “WOW van” behind the scenes?
00:12:07
Emily Withnall: Yes, they do. (laughs) It’s called the WOW van.
00:12:11
Andrea Klunder: I always see it written that way in documents and wondered if people actually say that.
00:12:19
Emily Withnall: They do. But for listeners who aren’t familiar, WOW stands for Wonders on Wheels.
00:12:28
Andrea Klunder: What else is coming up?
00:12:30
Emily Withnall: We’re also talking to Kelly Jenks, a professor at New Mexico State University. She’s leading an excavation of an old land grant community with a very rich history.
It’s one of the few excavation projects led by a Hispanic woman and focused on a Hispanic community on land grant land. She’ll be joining us to talk about that work.
00:13:10
Andrea Klunder: And we’re returning to one of your favorite topics — poetry.
00:13:17
Emily Withnall: Yes. So much poetry coming up.
The spring issue of El Palacio is filled with poetry, and we’ll be talking with Manuel González — also known as Manny González — New Mexico’s new State Poet Laureate.
He’s the third Poet Laureate the state has had, and his background is in slam poetry, which will bring a very different sensibility to the role.
00:13:59
Andrea Klunder: Mm-hmm.
00:13:59
Emily Withnall: Our outgoing Poet Laureate, Lauren Camp, was on the podcast a few seasons ago, and Manny will offer a very different approach during his three-year term.
[Bright, rhythmic music swells.]
00:14:09
Andrea Klunder: Poetry is spring, but we jumped ahead of the upcoming winter issue. What can you tell us about the Winter issue of El Palacio?
00:14:23
Emily Withnall: The Winter issue is filled with exciting historic and exhibition-focused articles.
One article features Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site, the newest addition to our historic sites, located just outside Las Cruces. Its grand opening is coming up very soon.
There’s also an article about excavation work at Acoma Pueblo in partnership with the Office of Archaeology, led by the people of Acoma to ensure the work is culturally respectful.
Another piece focuses on an exhibition at the National Hispanic Cultural Center about artists who were also Chicano activists during the 1970s at New Mexico Highlands University. The writer centers photographer Adelita Medina, whose work captured the role of women and children during the Movement.
There’s also coverage of Site Santa Fe’s citywide exhibition Once Within a Time, including work shown at the Palace of the Governors. The article examines artists interrogating colonization and nuclear colonialism in New Mexico.
We also profile Governor’s Arts Award recipients, including a feature on musician Nacha Mendez, known for her global Latin sound and regular performances in Santa Fe.
00:17:04
Andrea Klunder: When does the Winter issue drop, and how can people subscribe?
00:17:07
Emily Withnall: The Winter issue drops December 1.
People can subscribe at elpalacio.org/subscribe. You can order a single issue or subscribe for one or two years. Local readers can also subscribe by becoming a member of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, which includes museum access and an issue of El Palacio with each publication.
[Music transitions to upbeat piano.]
00:17:42
Andrea Klunder: Winter is a big season in New Mexico. What are some events you’ve seen behind the scenes?
00:17:59
Emily Withnall: A few years ago, I helped set up farolitos at Jemez Historic Site — hundreds personally, and thousands overall — outlining the ruins and church.
We were there on the night photographers were allowed in to capture the glowing lights. Events like this, along with bonfires and evening walks, are a big part of winter in New Mexico.
You can find a full list of events at nmculture.org/traditions.
00:19:13
Andrea Klunder: It sounds so exciting. I’m really looking forward to this season.
We encourage everyone to follow Encounter Culture on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and to check the show notes for links to El Palacio and winter events across New Mexico.
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![Event poster for La Virgen de Guadalupe: Photographing a Cultural Icon with Delilah Montoya and Katie Doyle, hosted by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/DCA-ECpodcast_S08E01-WIDESCREEN.jpg)