"Search Work: A Collective Inquiry into the Job Hunt" with Rachel Meade Smith, Kasia Nikhamina, and Jordan White
Join editor Rachel Meade Smith and contributors Kasia Nikhamina and Jordan White for a discussion and readings from the new anthology, Search Work: A Collective Inquiry into the Job Hunt (OR Books, 2026).
You can reserve a copy and copies of the book will be available for purchase thanks to Powerhouse ARENA Bookstore.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Search Work asks what we uncover when we pause and examine the textures of something as mundane and tedious as the job hunt. In this anthology, made up of personal essays, archival job ads, labor research, and even a playscript, more than fifty contributors reflect on the rituals, cultural artifacts, and emotional turbulence of looking for work. Their collective inquiry shows how and why the quest for a paycheck almost always morphs into something deeper—a search for belonging, a referendum on identity, a macro view of the systemic forces that govern our lives. Through a variety of formats and voices, Search Work shows how the labor of looking does more than land us a new job; it reshapes desire and alters our sense of self, sometimes for good.
PARTICIPANTS
Rachel Meade Smith is a writer, editor, and civic design worker focused on information access and the world of work. Since 2016, she's authored Words of Mouth, a free newsletter sharing opportunities for good work and creative expansion, reaching tens of thousands of readers across the globe.
Kasia Nikhamina was born in Poland in 1985 and grew up in New York City. She writes the weekly newsletter Divinity School and runs Redbeard Bikes based in DUMBO. Her work has appeared in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine and Roxane Gay's The Audacity. She was a Fellow at A Public Space in 2025.
Jordan White is a freelance writer, editor, and lifelong New Yorker. She is a contributing editor at Callaloo, and previously worked as the managing editor for CRWNMAG. She writes both fiction and memoir about the peculiarities of black existence and the messiness of trying to be yourself when you don't know who that is yet. "Until Proven Otherwise" is her first personal piece published in print.
