NMDCA News:

SANTA FE — El Palacio, the official magazine of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (NMDCA), announces the release of its Winter 2025-26 issue and a public reading and conversation with four featured contributors at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at FUSION, 708 in Albuquerque.

The event will feature live readings by Laura Paskus, Myrriah Gómez, Rica Maestas and Santana Shorty, followed by a Q&A moderated by editor Emily Withnall. Copies of the winter issue and books by the contributors will be available for purchase.

In her editor’s note for the winter edition, Withnall reflects on how New Mexico’s landscapes, histories, and cultural traditions shape our understanding of both past and future. Through articles, essays, photography, and poetry, the issue explores the ways communities remember, interpret, and preserve stories across generations.

The Winter 2025–26 issue includes:

• Reporting by Laura Paskus on a recent excavation at Acoma Pueblo, a project that blended archaeological practice with traditional Indigenous knowledge as the Pueblo prepared for a much-needed infrastructure project.
• A feature by Myrriah Gómez examining the overlooked roles of women and children in the 1970s Chicano Movement in Las Vegas, N.M., highlighted through the black-and-white photography of Adelita M. Medina.
• An essay by Rica Maestas on two installations within SITE SANTA FE’s Once Within a Time exhibition at the Palace of the Governors, which challenge visitors to confront power systems and rethink assumptions about New Mexico history.
• Poet Santana Shorty’s “Sun Series,” which invites readers to consider the small, everyday moments that shape how we see ourselves in relation to land, community, ancestors, and future generations.

About the Contributors

Laura Paskus is a longtime writer and producer based in Albuquerque and the author of At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate.

Myrriah Gómez is an associate professor in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico and author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos.

Rica Maestas is a socially engaged artist and writer from Albuquerque whose creative work centers lived wisdom and mutuality.

Santana Shorty is a poet and writer from New Mexico. A graduate of Stanford University and the Institute of American Indian Arts, her work has appeared in New Mexico Magazine, El Palacio, and Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth. She is a member of the Navajo Nation and lives in Santa Fe.

For more information about El Palacio or to explore current and past issues, visit elpalacio.org.