New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs welcomes you to subscribe and support our state’s cultural treasures.
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 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 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 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).
Laureli Ivanoff (opens in a new tab) is an Inupiaq writer in Unalakleet, Alaska, where she cuts fish and makes seal oil. She’s working on a memoir and is currently an MFA student at the Institute of American Indian Arts’ low-residency creative writing program.
![A woman in a long coat walks under a covered walkway with brightly painted pillars and adobe-style architecture. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1-6-400x225.jpg)
By Laureli IvanoffPhotographs by Kevin Lange Joy Harjo helps one to understand the concept that God, the Creator, should be feared. Having the chance to talk with the three-term United States poet laureate was like a wannabe boxer meeting Muhammad Ali. A C-team basketball player meeting Dr. J. A tennis player stealing a moment with Serena. To momentarily have access to the internationally renowned writer and poet was one part wonderful and three parts terrifying.
