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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).
Richard Sims is the director of New Mexico Historic Sites. He has degrees in anthropology from the University of Oregon and English from Northern Arizona University–Flagstaff. He has managed museums in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Montana. Several of his weekly newspaper columns in Prescott, Arizona, were devoted to humor, enough so that he was the special guest on Michael Feldman’s NPR program, “What Do You Know?” some years back.
Basashi is easy to chew, and mighty tasty when dipped in a garlic-soy sauce. Deep red in color, well-marbled, sliced thin—in Japan, raw horsemeat is a delicacy. As I tried some basashi along with other unfamiliar dishes in a hot springs resort on the southern island of Kyushu, I reflected on the many mountain men who dined on horse and mule meat in the American West.
