Contributors
For over a century, El Palacio has been a forum for voices exploring New Mexico’s art, archaeology, history, and landscape. Explore the writers, photographers, historians, and scientists whose perspectives have defined the magazine’s pages—past and present.
Arthur Sze
Arthur Sze is the current U.S. Poet Laureate. Sze is a poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of twelve books, including Into the Hush, Sight Lines, and others. Sze’s poems have been translated into fifteen languages, and he is the recipient of the National Book Award among many other honors. He lives in Santa Fe.
Deborah Jackson Taffa
Deborah Jackson Taffa is a citizen of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo. Her memoir Whiskey Tender was a 2024 National Book Award Finalist and was longlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Taffa serves as the director of the MFA in creative writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Cara Romero
Cara Romero is an award-winning contemporary fine art photographer. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero’s expansive oeuvre has been informed by formal training in film, digital, fine art, and commercial photography. She maintains a studio in Santa Fe, regularly participates in Native American art fairs, and was featured in PBS’ Craft in America (2019).
Jayne C. Aubele
Jayne C. Aubele is a geologist and adult programs educator for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. She has worked as a field geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and as a NASA scientist and program manager. Her publications include scientific papers and geologic maps of Earth, Mars, and Venus, geoscience articles/book chapters for the general public, and curricula/materials for teachers of all grade levels. She is past president of the New Mexico Academy of Science and a fellow of the Geological Society of America.
A Drive Through Time
By Jayne C. Aubele We are familiar with the cultural diversity of New Mexico, reflected in its people, history, art, food, and more. But there is another kind of diversity in New Mexico that makes it special: our landscape. And the diversity of our landscape, from mountains to mesas to volcanoes to rivers, is due to the diversity of our geology—our geoscape.