[3][4] Sehgal was born circa 1981 in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.[1] Her family moved frequently and, as a child she lived with her parents in Delhi, Manila, and Budapest before they returned to the United States and Northern Virginia.

[5] Deciding to change fields, Sehgal entered graduate school after returning to the US, and earned an MFA from Columbia University.

[7][8] In July 2017, Sehgal joined the team of book critics established at The New York Times after the retirement of Michiko Kakutani, and served into 2021.

[2] Sehgal received the 2010 National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.

The judges wrote: "She exemplifies the virtues of subtlety, surprise, and above all, pleasure...from the smallest of units—the word, the phrase—to the largest: character, perspective, revelation.