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).

Daniel Vandever (Diné)

Daniel Vandever (Diné) (opens in a new tab) is a children’s book author and the principal owner of South of Sunrise Creative. He obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism and a Master’s in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico.

A promotional graphic for an event featuring Navajo picture book author Daniel Vandever, hosted by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. [gen-ai]

#56 Uplifting Cultural Knowledge with Navajo Picture Book Author Daniel Vandever

What does it mean to tell a story that your community has never seen reflected back at them? In this episode of Encounter Culture, host Emily Withnall sits down with Navajo children’s book author Daniel Vandever, whose picture books Fall in Line, Holden! and Herizon weave imagination and joy together with the weight of boarding school history and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis. Daniel shares how a career in higher education, and a stubborn love of rhyme, led him to write the books he wished had existed growing up, why he chose to let one book speak entirely without words, and how he’s already dreaming up a story you can 3D-print as you read it. It’s a conversation about creativity, representation, healing, and the quiet power of a bedtime story.