Kabir Sehgal author page

Kabir Sehgal biography

Kabir Sehgal is an American author, musician and Grammy Award-winning record producer who writes fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. He graduated from Dartmouth College and the London School of Economics. His professional background includes work in finance at J. P. Morgan and service in the United States Navy. He has also worked as a jazz bassist, composer and music producer, collaborating with musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Chucho Valdés and Arturo O’Farrill.

Sehgal has co-written numerous children’s picture books with Surishtha Sehgal. Their first collaboration, A Bucket of Blessings, was published by Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in April 2014. Illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong and featuring an afterword by Maya Angelou, the book retells an Indian folktale about a monkey searching for water during a drought. It became a New York Times bestseller.

The authors subsequently published The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk (2016), illustrated by Jess Golden, which adapts the traditional song The Wheels on the Bus to an Indian setting. Their picture book Festival of Colors (2018), illustrated by Vashti Harrison, introduces the Hindu spring festival of Holi through two siblings preparing coloured powders for the celebrations.

Other collaborations include Thread of Love (2018), illustrated by Zara Gonzalez Hoang, which introduces the Indian festival of Raksha Bandhan, and It’s Diwali! (2022), illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan. The latter uses a counting rhyme based on One, Two, Buckle My Shoe to introduce traditions associated with the Festival of Lights. Both books were published by Beach Lane Books.

Sehgal’s picture book Hello, India!, co-written with Surishtha Sehgal and illustrated by Ibrahim Shidiq, takes readers on a journey through Indian landmarks and cultural settings, including the Taj Mahal and the Himalayan Mountains. It was published by Beach Lane Books on 13 October 2026.