A New Critic to Deepen Our Ideas Journalism

We're thrilled to announce that the Times has hired Parul Sehgal, one of the most dazzling thinkers in our industry, to contribute regular essays and anchor our new Ideas initiative.

Parul is one of America's most important critical voices and a singular stylist with a deep archive of memorable work. As a critic, she has an impressive track record of not just writing about culture but also creating cultural moments. Readers have come to expect that one of her bylines signals the arrival of a revelatory new dispatch from the literary and intellectual frontiers. Most recently, these bylines appeared in The New Yorker, where as a staff writer Parul wrote definitive critical essays on the state of American marriage, the role of narrative in memories of India's partition and, of course, the case against the "trauma plot."

But as we all know, before that, from 2017 until 2021, Parul was one of The Times's sharpest book critics, reviewing fiction and nonfiction for us on a weekly basis. Her searing reviews of "American Dirt" and Salman Rushdie's "Quichotte" helped to set conversation in the book world; her essays on #MeToo and fiction and the enduring power of ghost stories pulled together disparate works to draw out big themes. And during her years at the Times, she also wrote indelible profiles for the Magazine of figures like Jenny Offill, Mary Gaitskill, and Glenda Jackson, that were a masterclass in exploring the intersection of personality and ideas.

Now she is returning to The Times to take up a new role as a regular contributor to Ideas, the franchise we launched last year to showcase ideas journalism at The Times, and that Max has been editing since the summer. This weekly feature has been a space where our reporters and critics have thought deeply, and written with engaging perspective, about the intellectual currents shaping our world. Parul's arrival will help take this project to the next level, and we couldn't be more excited.

"Parul's writing and thinking are, simply, electric," said Sam Dolnick, who, along with Jim Yardley, has been overseeing the Ideas initiative at the masthead level. "When we saw the opportunity to double down on incisive, bold, provocative writing about the world of ideas, Parul was the very first call we made. I couldn't be more excited that she's coming home to The Times."

Parul's title will be critic at large. She starts Dec. 23.