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).

Miriam Sagan

Miriam Sagan (opens in a new tab) is a poet, essayist, memoirist, and teacher. She is the author of more than a dozen books, and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a founding member of the collaborative press Tres Chicas Books. She holds an MA in creative writing from Boston University and was one of the editors of Aspect Magazine. She has been a writer in residence at four national parks, Yaddo, MacDowell, Gulkistan in Iceland, and Kura Studio in Japan. Notable works include Commune of the Golden Sun (2024), Music for Monoliths (2023), and Border Line: 101 Haiku (2023).

A flat-topped hill rises above a gently sloping landscape with scattered trees under a clear blue sky. [gen-ai]

Verses to an Institution

WHAT'S NOT LOST Something happens when there is an absence of foundation there is a direction chosen where heart, intent, and desire, meet intuition—where preservation meets development meets community to set a precedent for instances in which the likes of MOMA follow suit. Architecture and ancient character conversing as if they’re of two different tongues but translation isn’t lost altogether— instead a romantic erosion set in motion a revival that was and remains inherently difficult.