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.

A man with short gray hair and glasses, wearing a collared shirt, looks at the camera against a black background.

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.

A woman with long dark hair wearing a coral shirt sits outdoors, resting her chin on her hand, with greenery and flowers in the background.

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.

A woman with straight brown hair wearing a dark turtleneck and long, beaded earrings poses against a plain white background.

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).

Sharon Stewart

Sharon Stewart (opens in a new tab) is a photographer who has extensively photographed the economic, social, familial, and religious influences that define the cultural landscape of Northern New Mexico including a long form exploration of local acequia culture and more recently, the continuing aftereffects of the 2022 Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. She lives in the Mora Valley mountain village of Chacón. Her work has been exhibited and collected in the New Mexico Museum of Art, New Mexico History Museum, UNM Center for Southwest Research, and New Mexico Capitol Art Collection.

A hillside forest of scorched, leafless trees stands beneath a layer of mist, showing signs of recent wildfire damage.

The Loss of the Commons: A Historic Context for the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire

In April 2022, the largest and most destructive wildfire in New Mexico history, known as the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, erupted in the Santa Fe National Forest.The wildfire originated from two U.S. Forest Service prescribed burns that escaped control in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District. The combined fire spread down the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into nearby communities in Mora and San Miguel Counties.