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).

Gay Block

Gay Block (opens in a new tab) uses the camera as a research tool for learning about being human. Block is internationally recognized for her photography, which fearlessly explores personal identity issues, including gender, class, religion, familial relationships, and sexual orientation. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Two elderly women in sun hats and sunglasses stand arm in arm on a beach with straw umbrellas visible in the background. [gen-ai]

To Feel Less Alone: Gay Block, A Portrait

Is a portrait a picture of the person in front of the camera or the person behind the camera? Talking about the many portraits made of her by the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe said, “He was always photographing himself.” As part of its Focus on Photography series, the New Mexico Museum of Art presents a survey of portraits by longtime Santa Fe resident Gay Block, showcasing work from across her career in which she uses the camera as a research tool for learning about being human.