Parul Sehgal
Verified
Critic at large, @nytimes
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Parul Sehgal
Rachel Cusk intentó caricaturizar a Natalie Portman. Solo se caricaturizó a sí misma
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Rachel Cusk intentó caricaturizar a Natalie Portman. Solo se caricaturizó a sí misma Las similitudes entre la protagonista de la nueva novela de Cusk y la actriz Natalie Portman han convertido la obra en el centro de críticas y especulaciones.
Rachel Cusk Tried to Caricature Natalie Portman. She Only Caricatured Herself.
Rachel Cusk Tried to Caricature Natalie Portman. She Only Caricatured Herself. Her latest novel appears to savage a celebrity. But Cusk has, once again, managed to turn herself into the victim. Credit...Photo illustration by Chantal Jahchan Aug. 28, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET To accompany the startling news of this summer — the freakish weather; the apparent confirmation of the existence of “diamond rain” swirling inside Neptune — a slight, minimalist novel has become unlikely tabloid fodder.
'Gay Bar', el libro que desvela los secretos de la movida 'queer' más luminosa y canalla
Omari Douglas en una escena de la serie 'It's a Sin' (2021) . Parul Sehgal © The New York Times Book Review Publicada 10 agosto 2026 00:51h Si está aburrido, o mejor, si le fascinan los personajes desaliñados, esquivos y con un toque salvaje, entonces este libro es para usted. Gay Bar, de Jeremy Atherton Lin (1974) es una historia cultural inquieta e inteligente de la vida nocturna queer. Cubierta de 'Gay Bar', de Jeremy Atherton Lin.
Does 'All Men Are Created Equal' Include Women?
"The only question left to be settled, now, is: Are women persons?" -- Susan B. Anthony, 1873 -- On Nov. 5, 1872, in Rochester, New York, 15 American women left their homes to commit a crime. Their leader, a woman in her 50s with a famously cool, unwavering gaze, was arrested later that month.
Frederick Douglass’s Demand for Citizenship Is Still Radical
Jia Lynn Yang is a Times senior writer. She previously served as the national editor. June 8, 2026 In the Edward P. Jones historical novel, “The Known World,” there is a harrowing scene in which a freed slave named Augustus Townsend encounters a group of patrolmen one night on the dark country roads of antebellum Virginia. They are on the lookout for runaway slaves.
Does ‘All Men Are Created Equal’ Include Women?
America, One Line At a Time The United States was written into being. Now, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, we look at six sentences that shaped the American story — taken from a founding document, an incendiary speech, a classic autobiography, an inaugural address, a protest song and a baseball cap. Does ‘All Men Are Created Equal’ Include Women? By Parul Sehgal Parul Sehgal is a Times critic who writes about literature, language and ideas. June 8, 2026 Share full article 0 On Nov.
They’re Some of the Most Famous Words Ever Written. Have You Ever Really Read Them?
America, One Line At a Time The United States was written into being. Now, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, we look at six sentences that shaped the American story — taken from a founding document, an incendiary speech, a classic autobiography, an inaugural address, a protest song and a baseball cap. They’re Some of the Most Famous Words Ever Written. Have You Ever Really Read Them? By A.O. Scott A.O. Scott is a Times critic who writes about literature and ideas.
‘Make America Great Again’ Didn’t Start With Trump. It Won’t End With Him, Either.
America, One Line At a Time The United States was written into being. Now, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, we look at six sentences that shaped the American story — taken from a founding document, an incendiary speech, a classic autobiography, an inaugural address, a protest song and a baseball cap. ‘Make America Great Again’ Didn’t Start With Trump. It Won’t End With Him, Either. By A.O. Scott A.O. Scott is a Times critic who writes about literature and ideas.
How F.D.R.’s Most Famous Sentence Remade America
America, One Line At a Time The United States was written into being. Now, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, we look at six sentences that shaped the American story — taken from a founding document, an incendiary speech, a classic autobiography, an inaugural address, a protest song and a baseball cap. How F.D.R.’s Most Famous Sentence Remade America By Peter Baker Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.
Does ‘All Men Are Created Equal’ Include Women?
Parul Sehgal is a Times critic who writes about literature, language and ideas. June 8, 2026 On Nov. 5, 1872, in Rochester, N.Y., 15 American women left their homes to commit a crime. Their leader, a woman in her 50s, with a famously cool, unwavering gaze, was arrested later that month.
‘You must, in some sense, go mad with literature’: Writer Vivek Shanbhag
Literature marks the moment of passage, when thought crosses from private consciousness into public meaning. In translation, it makes yet another crossing – from one language to another, from the familiar into foreign territory. This conversation brings together two people acutely alive to that threshold, or what celebrated Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag calls “the gate of translation”.
Gisèle Pelicot y el lado más incómodo de la supervivencia
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Gisèle Pelicot y el lado más incómodo de la supervivencia Las memorias de Pelicot cuestionan las narrativas convencionales sobre las víctimas y muestran cómo funciona la negación incluso después del horror.
Gisèle Pelicot’s Memoir Said Something Taboo About Victimhood. We Didn’t Listen.
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Gisèle Pelicot’s Memoir Said Something Taboo About Victimhood. We Didn’t Listen. A book by the world’s most famous survivor of sexual violence has been read as a manifesto or a cry of pain. What she wrote is far more complicated.
Ben Lerner’s Latest Is a Strange and Brilliant Attempt to Resurrect the Novel
Ben Lerner’s Latest Is a Strange and Brilliant Attempt to Resurrect the Novel With “Transcription,” the writer makes a case for the vitality of the form. Credit...Photo illustration by Ben Denzer Although the exact dates remain hazy, I think it is safe to say that sometime between 2009 and 2014 it became officially embarrassing to be a novelist. Or so the novelists told us at the time.
Sarah Schulman, The Art of Nonfiction No. 14
Interviewed by Parul Sehgal On the roof of her apartment building on East Ninth Street in Manhattan, 1986. Courtesy of Sarah Schulman. In 1979, Sarah Schulman moved into a sixth-floor walk-up on East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, a few blocks away from where her family lived at the time of her birth in 1958.
Sarah Schulman, The Art of Nonfiction No. 14
Interviewed by Parul Sehgal On the roof of her apartment building on East Ninth Street in Manhattan, 1986. Courtesy of Sarah Schulman. In 1979, Sarah Schulman moved into a sixth-floor walk-up on East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, a few blocks away from where her family lived at the time of her birth in 1958.
Cannonball with Wesley Morris: Don’t Make a Saint Out of Toni Morrison
Cannonball with Wesley Morris Don’t Make a Saint Out of Toni Morrison It’s a disservice — to her and to us.
Toni Morrison Was a Master of the Unthinkable
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Occasionally, in a slightly reckless state of mind, I have the thought that the real believers where the novel is concerned, the people who truly appreciate the force of fiction, might be those hellbent on banning it. What powers they ascribe to it, what fearsome potential to corrupt, to alter minds, to sow unrest, to matter.
The ‘Masculinity Crisis’ Is Real. This Forgotten Book Explains Why.
You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading. Credit...Photo illustration by Alex Merto Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Listen to this article · 15:04 min Learn more Published Dec. 23, 2025Updated Dec. 30, 2025 Where are we exactly, in this deathless debate about the crisis of masculinity?
‘The Perfect Neighbor’ is an American Nightmare
Podcasts|‘The Perfect Neighbor’ is an American Nightmare https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/podcasts/cannonball-perfect-neighbor.html Cannonball With Wesley Morris ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ is an American Nightmare Should we be allowed to see it? Nov.
The Perfect Neighbor is an American Nightmare
Cannonball with Wesley Morris ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Is an American Nightmare Should we be allowed to see it? Back to Cannonball with Wesley Morris Previous More episodes ofCannonball with Wesley Morris November 13, 2025 • 42:41Where Have All the Covers Gone? November 6, 2025When Did Music Critics Get So Nice? October 16, 2025Dark Pop Is In. But Gaga Is Mother. September 25, 2025 • 53:34Is ‘South Park’ Trump-Proof? August 28, 2025 • 57:45The Summer Movies That Made Us Next Nov.
‘Frankenstein’ Has Always Held Up a Mirror. What Does It Show Us Now?
It is, perhaps, the most famous origin story in literature, and it begins with blood-red snow falling from the sky. The year 1816 brought forth freakish weather set off by the explosion of a volcano in Indonesia. Blizzards battered New England in June. Rivers swelled and filled with the bodies of drowned animals. Crops failed, hay rotted, typhus raged. In Paris, the pamphleteers warned of the end of the world.
‘Frankenstein’ Has Always Held Up a Mirror. What Does It Show Us Now?
It is, perhaps, the most famous origin story in literature, and it begins with blood-red snow falling from the sky. The year 1816 brought forth freakish weather set off by the explosion of a volcano in Indonesia. Blizzards battered New England in June. Rivers swelled and filled with the bodies of drowned animals. Crops failed, hay rotted, typhus raged. In Paris, the pamphleteers warned of the end of the world.
Thomas Pynchon Saw Where We Were Headed. How Does “Shadow Ticket” Hold Up? Original
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. In the course of ordinary events, a novelist expects, however grudgingly, to compete with rivals, even acolytes. But to discover yourself outpaced by a reality that bears an uncanny resemblance to your own fiction seems to be a particularly painful indignity to bear, a kind of spiritual ransacking. Pity Thomas Pynchon.
Is It Abusive to Make Art About Your Children? Original
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. They were pictures of ordinary life as seldom seen — wet beds and nosebleeds, naked children playing in the curve of a dark river, their bodies as slim and white as tapers. Sally Mann’s photographs, published in her collection “Immediate Family,” in 1992, brought her instant celebrity and censure.
Can You Ever Really Know a Person? Biographers Keep Trying.
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. In our age of distraction, the arts appear to be responding in kind, shrinking and streamlining themselves to capture what they can of our withering attention spans. Pop songs are down a full minute from the 1990s. Television seasons are getting shorter. Children’s books, which averaged 190 pages in the 1930s, tap out at 60 pages today.
Solidarity Among Progressives Could Give New Life to Their Cause
In conversation with Page, Schulman explained that the speech was approved by Kelly’s partner and friends and delivered in the spirit of the political funerals during the thick of the AIDS pandemic; she wanted to dispel the fantasy of suicide as any kind of solution. She took questions from those in the audience who had feltwounded or angered.
Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Temptations of Narrative
It is a truth only fitfully acknowledged that whom the gods wish to destroy, they first give an opinion column. “A live coffin,” a former newspaper colleague of mine once called hers. (She quit.) Such a space seems an impossible remit, created to coax out vague, vatic pronouncements as the writer, mind wrung dry of ideas, sets about a weary pantomime of thinking and feeling, outrage and offense. Few writers have seemed as aware of the hazards of professional opinion-mongering as Ta-Nehisi Coates.
An Anatomist of Pleasure Gives Voice to the Body in Pain
Pain, it has been said, is the great censor, the eater of words. Pain shatters language; it remains untranslatable—not just anti-narrative but pre-narrative, calling us back to our first sounds.
Is the End of Marriage the Beginning of Self-Knowledge?
Why do you stay? a neighbor asks, listening to her litany. After a screaming fight, after John admits that he cannot contribute to the joint bank account that month, after Jane cries “from the deepest part of the pain tank,” she admits, “I understood why people divorce.” The reader’s heart lifts—see Jane run?—but then drops, realizing that there are more than two hundred pages to go. Eventually, it’s John who will leave, for another woman, and Jane who will beg him to stay.
“Consent,” by Jill Ciment, and “Change,” by Édouard Louis, Reviewed
On time, as anticipated, they have returned, tunnelling into view, leaving their sooty signature. Pale in the sudden light, they fan and flutter their wings. It’s time to sing. Me, they sing. Me, again. Cicada season has come and gone; it is another class of organism I refer to, in the throes of a parallel drama of ceremonial unwrapping and full-throated song of the self.
“Consent,” by Jill Ciment, and “Change,” by Édouard Louis, Reviewed
Cicada season has come and gone; it is another class of organism I refer to, in the throes of a parallel drama of ceremonial unwrapping and full-throated song of the self. As if compelled by biological imperatives of their own, these writers—serial memoirists, they’re sometimes called—burst forth with regularly timed tales of tribulation, of molting, of transformation. And each time they tell us they have it figured out.
Amy Herzog Wants You to Enter Into the Strangeness of Caregiving
A child we cannot see is in danger. We hear the beeping of medical monitors. We hear his nurse say, with sudden sharpness, “I don’t like this.” We hear his mother’s voice, threading through the noise, rising above it, as she tries to rouse him, asks him to stay with her. Someone—a visitor—runs to find a phone to call an ambulance. She cannot find the phone, she almost drops the phone—what’s the address again? It was at this point that the woman sitting next to me, in the audience, covered her eyes.
Who’s Afraid of Judith Butler?
In January, the American philosopher Judith Butler and the South African artist William Kentridge took part in a public conversation in Paris about atrocity and its representations. Before an audience at the École Normale Supérieure, they spoke for nearly two hours, in lulling abstraction and murmured mutual regard: Can we give the image the benefit of the doubt? What is the role of the object in thinking? After the event, a woman—a philosopher herself—approached Butler.
In Tommy Orange’s Latest, a Family Tree Grows from Severed Roots
By signing up for our newsletter, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
In Tommy Orange’s Latest, a Family Tree Grows from Severed Roots
What happened in the apple orchard that so frightened the children? Something had been half-glimpsed or heard, something in the night. Rumors sparked but didn’t catch. The children kept their distance, and stayed close to the nearby school. Years passed. The school was shut down. The buildings stood. The orchard grew wild. And, one day, a tourist out walking in the area discovered a piece of bone—a child’s rib. In 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation began an investigation.
The Twins Obsession
By signing up for our newsletter, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
The Twins Obsession
Half a century later, they still return our gaze, staring back at us in their dark dresses and white stockings, their white headbands pinned in place. The seven-year-old identical twins Cathleen and Colleen Wade stand side by side, pressed together as if to create the illusion that they are conjoined. One twin smiles; the other appraises the photographer. There are remnants of chocolate cake in the creases of their mouths.
What We Learn from the Lives of Critics
But, to see the job done properly, call in a critic. In the novel “Max Jamison” (1970), which was lauded in its time and is now cruelly out of print, the critic Wilfrid Sheed paints a merciless picture of his profession. Max, a film and theatre reviewer, tramps up and down Broadway excreting opinion, as contractually obliged, and hating himself for it. He is honorable, in his way. He refuses to pander, to flatter the powerful, to build a brand. He chokes on his own stock phrases.
What Happens When James Ellroy Gets Mixed Up with Marilyn Monroe?
James Ellroy, the neo-noir eminence of L.A. crime fiction, is back, with his favorite snake, Fred Otash, in tow. The real Otash, who died in 1992, was a disgraced former cop turned private eye and freelance menace who worked with the notorious Hollywood tabloid Confidential; he claimed to have hot-wired every bathhouse in L.A., to have spied on Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, and to have eavesdropped on Marilyn Monroe as she died. Ellroy knew the man a little and loathed him a lot.
How the Writer and Critic Jacqueline Rose Puts the World on the Couch
“Who designed the boys?” she replied. Rose, who co-directs the Institute for the Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, is a feminist writer and critic with a psychoanalytic orientation; she is singularly influential, both within and without the academy. Since the nineteen-eighties, she has explored a range of topics—modernism, motherhood, the Middle East.
How the Writer and Critic Jacqueline Rose Puts the World on the Couch
“Who designed the boys?” she replied. Rose, who co-directs the Institute for the Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, is a feminist writer and critic with a psychoanalytic orientation; she is singularly influential, both within and without the academy. Since the nineteen-eighties, she has explored a range of topics—modernism, motherhood, the Middle East.
Life and Letters
Get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box every day.
The Tyranny of the Tale
After a millennium, she remains the hardest-working woman in literature. It was not enough to be saddled with a husband who had the nasty habit of marrying and murdering a new virgin every day to assure himself of spousal fidelity. Nor was it enough to produce a series of nested stories under such deadlines (truly, I complain too much), stories so prickly and tantalizing that the king postponed her murder every night to wait for the next installment.
The Tyranny of the Tale
After a millennium, she remains the hardest-working woman in literature. It was not enough to be saddled with a husband who had the nasty habit of marrying and murdering a new virgin every day to assure himself of spousal fidelity. Nor was it enough to produce a series of nested stories under such deadlines (truly, I complain too much), stories so prickly and tantalizing that the king postponed her murder every night to wait for the next installment.
Lorrie Moore’s Death-Defying New Novel Original
Let us be a little vulgar. Let us stand on the shore and wave at you, Lorrie Moore. Let us talk extravagantly of your artistic growth or lack thereof; let us shoehorn in biography. Why else have you given us these naggingly suggestive patterns? Why else is your new novel, “I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home” (Knopf), wallpapered with codes and clues?
Zadie Smith: Portland Arts & Lectures 2023/24
Zadie Smith will be interviewed by Parul Sehgal, New Yorker staff writer and former New York Times book reviewer. This event is part of our 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures. A series subscription must be purchased to attend this event. All lectures will be held in person at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland, OR. For more information on the season, please see our FAQs or reach out to us at la@literary-arts.org.
Jodie Comer Puts Her Talents on Trial
Comer has followed “Killing Eve” with “Prima Facie,” a one-woman show that is all message—and which features her most revealing role to date. Comer plays Tessa, a scrappy barrister who excels at defending clients accused of sexual assault, and who finds her faith in the law unravelling after being raped by a colleague. The script was written by Suzie Miller, an Australian playwright and former barrister, who felt that the system was rigged against victims of sexual violence.
Why We Never Have Enough Time Original
Odell’s work has a knack for finding the right conditions and anchoring itself in them. Her previous book, “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” (2019), became a surprise best-seller, raising an alarm about how social media had fractured our capacity for deep focus and corralled us into relentless self-optimization.
Seventy-five Years After Indian Partition, Who Owns the Narrative? Original
Before it was an edict, and a death sentence, it was a rumor. To many, it must have seemed improbable; I imagine my grandmother, buying her vegetables at the market, settling her baby on her hip, craning to hear the news—a border, where? Two borders, to be exact.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Parul
Contact Parul, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack