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).

Liza Wolff-Francis

Liza Wolff-Francis (opens in a new tab) is a poet and writer with an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. Her work has been published in various publications, and she has a chapbook called Language of Crossing (Swimming with Elephants Publications).

Sun rays break through dark clouds, illuminating patches of a forested landscape with rolling hills in a black and white scene. [gen-ai]

Selected Poems

By Hakim Bellamy & Liza Wolff-Francis Hakim Bellamy Black Butterfly Whether Duke (Ellington)or Deniece (Williams)… you are Butterfly Black. Open armedin flight or otherwise.Ready for air. A flittering trumpet mute. Finding a runwayon any given pearly gate.Finding a Sundayto ever so occasionally spread your wings. Invertebrate graceoften confused for celebration. Turn insides out,spread cheeks and tongues for examination. Bare bones and teeth,as though better blocks and auctionscould preen you.