Parul Sehgal

Parul Sehgal is an Indian American literary critic, essayist, and editor known for her work in prominent newspapers and magazines, where she has reviewed fiction and nonfiction by writers from across the United States, India, and Europe. She has served on juries and panels for major literary awards and contributed essays to anthologies and periodicals associated with institutions such as The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review.

Early life and education

Sehgal was born in Chandigarh and raised in India during a period of cultural exchange shaped by postcolonial literature and transnational migration, later immigrating to the United States where she attended Barnard College and pursued graduate studies at Columbia University. During her undergraduate and graduate years she engaged with archives and curricula linked to figures such as Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and studied alongside peers influenced by programs at institutions like Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, and New York University.

Career

Sehgal's editorial and critical career includes positions at magazines and journals associated with New York's publishing ecosystem, including staff roles at The New Yorker and editorial work tied to The Paris Review and the book sections of The New York Times Book Review. She has reviewed books by authors such as Elena Ferrante, George Saunders, Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, and Jhumpa Lahiri while writing for outlets connected to publishers like Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Sehgal has participated in literary festivals and conferences including the Brooklyn Book Festival, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Pen America events, and panels with critics from The Guardian, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic.

Notable reviews and criticism

Sehgal's criticism often examines narrative form, voice, and cultural context when engaging with novels and essays by figures such as Khaled Hosseini, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Marilynne Robinson, Don DeLillo, and Rachel Cusk. Her reviews have been compared with the work of critics like James Wood, Michiko Kakutani, Harold Bloom, and Christopher Hitchens for their close reading and theoretical awareness, and have sparked responses from authors represented by literary agencies such as Creative Artists Agency and WME. Sehgal's essays have been anthologized alongside writers published by Granta, McSweeney's, London Review of Books, and n+1, and her criticism has intersected with debates involving prize juries for the Pulitzer Prize, Man Booker Prize, National Book Award, and Nobel Prize in Literature.

Awards and recognition

Her achievements have been recognized by organizations and awards connected to the literary establishment, including fellowships and residencies from institutions such as MacDowell Colony, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and grants associated with the National Endowment for the Arts and private foundations that support writers and critics. She has been shortlisted or cited in discussions tied to honors from panels convened by The New York Review of Books, National Book Critics Circle, PEN America, and university presses at Columbia University Press and Oxford University Press.

Personal life

Sehgal lives and works in New York City and has collaborated with editors, translators, and agents across networks involving Knopf, Vintage Books, Picador, and international publishers in London, Delhi, and Paris. She has contributed to cultural conversations linked to diaspora communities, South Asian literature, and contemporary criticism alongside peers active in organizations such as Asian American Writers' Workshop and literary programs at Columbia University.

Category:American literary critics Category:Indian emigrants to the United States