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).

Julia Goldberg

Julia Goldberg (opens in a new tab) is the editor of Source New Mexico, a journalist and teacher in Santa Fe, and the author of Inside Story: Everyone’s Guide to Reporting and Writing Creative Nonfiction.

Red sunset, Rio Puerco Valley, New Mexico. Photograph by Larry Crumpler.

Common Ground

By Julia Goldberg A dry climate with warm days and cold nights. Harsh spring winds. A landscape informed by long-ago volcanic eruptions. These are a few of the characteristics that describe New Mexico. They also describe Mars, and the connection between the terrains has informed Dr. Larry Crumpler’s work as a geologist for many decades. In November, Crumpler, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science’s research curator of volcanology and space sciences, was named one of only a handful of scientists selected by NASA as part of the science team for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, the objective of which is to better understand the geology of the planet and look for signs of ancient life.

A taxidermy coyote is displayed in the foreground with a mounted fish and seashells in the background on green cabinets. [gen-ai]

Where the Wild Things Are

By Julia Goldberg Growing up in Cimarron, New Mexico, Jason Malaney knew he enjoyed camping, hiking, and wildlife. When he arrived at college at Eastern New Mexico University, he discovered that love could become a career. “I was a first-generation student,” Malaney says. “None of my family had been to university and I didn’t know what to expect. Everybody was like, ‘You want to be a doctor or a lawyer or something really up there.’” When he began taking introductory biology classes, though, he learned about wildlife management.