D-Crit presents readings and a conversation with Niela Orr, Elvia Wilk, and Heather McCalden on criticism, the essay, and its possibilities.About this Event
LA, the internet, virality, the Gap, hoodies, Ye, grief, feral flora, light and its blinding urban intensities... All of these together. Join three essayists and critics for a discussion on the breadth and depth of form and voice in and on our contemporary world.
The public is invited to D-Crit for a conversation alongside students, faculty, and alums. The panel is moderated by author (The Eighth Moon and Nightshining) and D-Crit faculty member Jennifer Kabat.
The event will be at the SVA MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism Teaching and Learning Center on the second floor of 136 W 21st St.
6:00pm : Doors
6:30pm : Program (2nd Fl, MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism)
7:30pm : Reception
Requests for accessibility accommodations should be emailed to [email protected] by Sunday, November 1st.
Niela Orr has written for The Paris Review, The Baffler, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. She is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a Visiting Assistant Professor of cultural criticism at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Elvia Wilk is a writer and editor living in NYC. She is the author of the novel Oval and the essay collection Death by Landscape, and the novel A Diagnosis, which will land in 2027. Her essays, criticism, and fiction have been published in Frieze, Bookforum, 4Columns, n+1, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, BOMB, The White Review, Mousse, The Nation, The Atlantic, WIRED, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books. Her work has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Yaddo, the Hawthornden Foundation, the Remarque Institute, the Berggruen Institute, Artlab, La Becque, Callie's, and the DAAD. A contributing editor at e-flux Journal, she’s also a freelance manuscript editor, and a content strategist. She teaches in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence.
Heather McCalden is a writer and multidisciplinary artist working with text, image and movement. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and has exhibited at Young Space, Tanz Company Gervasi, Roulette Intermedium, Pierogi Gallery, National Sawdust, Testbed 1, and 99 Canal Street. In 2021 she won the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize which led to the publication of her debut memoir The Observable Universe (2024). William Gibson, author of Neuromancer, called it, “A gifted writer’s brilliantly innovative approach to autobiographical non-fiction, syncing a narrative of profoundly personal emotion with the invention and evolution of today’s cyberspace.” She has written for the Financial Times Weekend Magazine, LitHub, Broadcast by Pioneer Works, and Another Man Magazine.
Jennifer Kabat is a writer and part of the core faculty of the design research MA at SVA at D-Crit. Her essays are sweeping histories that interleave socialism, modernism and science with her own longing for a way to understand socialism and democracy today. She has also authored twinned books, The Eighth Moon and Nightshining with Milkweed Editions (2024 and 2025), exploring socialism, uprisings, and the climate crisis.
Event venue
SVA MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism, Second floor, 136 W 21st St, New York, United States
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