Paris Institute for Critical Thinking - PICT

14/03/2025

The Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT) is thrilled to announce the PICT Senlis Writers’ Retreat, a new and permanent establishment in the historic town of Senlis, located 40 minutes from downtown Paris and 20 minutes from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. 🎈

Since the launch of PICT Books, our boutique publishing house, PICT has increasingly focused its efforts on the written word, publishing a small but distinguished selection of books that have gone on to receive national translation awards, be proclaimed books of the year, and even become international bestsellers. In the process, we have reached a more global audience than ever while staying true to our independent, non-profit, volunteer, and grassroots ethos. The feedback from our readers and supporters has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraged us in our determination to press on in this direction.

Enter the PICT Senlis Writers’ Retreat, an idyllic, stimulating venue for intellectual and artistic production in the heart of historical Senlis. Starting from Summer 2025, the PICT Senlis Writers’ Retreat will welcome writers, intellectuals, and artists from around the world for invited residencies of one to two weeks. Opening its doors to PICT Books writers as well as other acclaimed members of our global community, the PICT Senlis Writers’ Retreat will form an integral part of the intellectual and artistic production and dissemination that has been at the heart of PICT’s mission from the outset.

The town of Senlis has Roman origins, with many features from the era, including city walls and a major amphitheatre, still forming part of urban life. Becoming a royal city under the House of Capet, Senlis went on to acquire many more landmarks including a second set of city walls and a magnificent cathedral. Surrounded by orchards, fields, and beautiful forests, Senlis still offers its present-day inhabitants the ambiance and ecosystem of a medieval city preserved almost in its entirety. Over the years, a remarkable group of individuals, ranging from the painter Séraphine Louis to the musician Sting, have called Senlis their home.

We congratulate the entire PICT Team on this milestone in our institute’s history and express our heartfelt gratitude to our entire community, without whose contributions and support this achievement would not have been possible!

https://parisinstitute.org/pict-launches-senlis-writers-retreat/

08/02/2025

PICT co-founder and award-winning translator Maria Matalaev released her newest translated volume on 7 February 2025: Fille de la révolution by Vera Broido. Co-translated from the English original, Daughter of the Revolution, by Maria and Anne Foucault, the book was published by Éditions Allia. Fille de la révolution will be celebrated with a launch party at Librairie Libertalia in Montreuil on 7 March. 🎈

Vera Broido (1907-2004) was a Russian-born author who came of age as the Russian Empire gave way to the Soviet Union, and whose life and work were marked by experiences of exile, revolution, and war. Daughter of the Revolution: A Russian Girlhood Remembered is Broido’s autobiography, recounting her adventures as she made her way from St Petersburg to Siberia to Berlin and, finally, to the UK, where she spent most of her life from the 1940s onwards.

Maria Matalaev is a translator, literary scholar, and concert pianist whose translations have tackled a range of fields from history to politics to literature. Her 2015 book, Valentin Berlinsky : Le quatuor d’une vie (Aedam Musicae) was awarded the “Prix du Témoignage” at the 2016 Prix des Muses. The book’s 2019 English translation, Valentin Berlinsky: A Quartet for Life, was included by BBC Music Magazine in its 2019 list of Best Classical Music Book Releases.

A co-founder of PICT, Maria was recently awarded a translation grant by the French Ministry of Culture to translate PICT co-founder Evrim Emir-Sayers’ 2024 book, The Veil of Depiction: Painting in Sufism and Phenomenology, from English into French. Like Evrim’s original, Maria’s translation will appear from PICT Books.

The launch party for Fille de la révolution will feature presentations by Maria and Anne Foucault, a Q&A-session, and a book signing. The event is free and open to the public; details below!

Date & Time:

Friday, 7 March 2025, 19:30

Location:

Librairie Libertalia, 12 Rue Marcelin Berthelot, 93100 Montreuil, France

https://parisinstitute.org/maria-matalaev-translates-daughter-of-the-revolution/

28/01/2025

An illustrated review for PICT's latest book Fulkumari 🎈
https://parisinstitute.org/fulkumari/

26/01/2025

International journalist and PICT contributor Mortaza Behboudi will release his first book, Femme, Vie, Liberté : Un reporter infiltré au cœur de la révolte iranienne, on 6 February 2025. The book recounts the 2022-2023 Mahsa Amini protests in Iran, during which Mortaza was the only European journalist to cover the events from within the country. Published by Editions du Rocher, the book will be celebrated with a launch party at Point Ephémère in Paris on the day of its release. 🎈

The death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, following her arrest by the Iranian Guidance Patrol for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly, ignited a wave of protests across the country that has been described as the most widespread revolt in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In this book, co-written with Journalist Marine Courtade, Mortaza offes a close-up view of this stunning social upheaval as well as of the young generations, mostly under thirty years of age, that risked imprisonment, torture, and death as they rallied around the motto of “Woman, Life, Freedom.”

Mortaza is a journalist and filmmaker whose work mainly focuses on mass migration and refugee issues. His past work been awarded the Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents (twice) and the French National Daily Varenne Prize. His 2024 film, Nous, jeunesse(s) d’Iran, was a finalist for the Albert Londres Prize. He is most widely known for his work on Afghanistan, where he was a Taliban prisoner for nine months in 2023, and on the Moria Refugee Camp on Le**os, Greece, from which he was the only journalist to report during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020.

Mortaza is currently working on a book recounting his continued coverage of refugee life on Le**os. The book, his first in the English language, will appear from PICT Books.

The launch party for Femme, Vie, Liberté will feature presentations by Mortaza and Marine Courtade, a Q&A-session, and a book signing. The event is free and open to the public; details below!

Date & Time:

Thursday, 6 February 2025, 19:00

Location:

Point Ephémère, 200 Quai de Valmy, 75010 Paris, France

https://parisinstitute.org/mortaza-behboudi-releases-book-on-iran-protests/

22/01/2025

Pinaki Bhattacharya’s Fulkumari: The Tale of a Refugee and a Rat in Pandemic Paris (PICT Books, 2025) will be published in Bengali translation as well as a local English edition in Bangladesh, the author’s home country. The two books will be published by Oitijjhya and its English-language subsidiary, Gripper Mark, in February 2025. The local English edition will be published in solidarity with Bangladeshi readers who may not be able to access the PICT Books original. 🎈

One of the leading Bangladeshi publishing houses, Oitijjhya has released over 1700 titles since its foundation in 2000. Oitijjhya also operates the Nirbachito chain of dedicated bookstores, occupies the largest pavilion at the Ekushey Book Fair, Bangladesh’s largest literary event, and represents Bengali literature at the Kolkata Book Fair in India. The publishing house has won numerous awards, in particular for its efforts to preserve the legacy of Bengali literature by publishing the collected works of iconic Bengali writers.

As part of its agreement with Oitijjhya, PICT Books will publish the international edition of Fulkumari’s Bengali translation later in 2025.

We wish Pinaki and everyone at PICT Books, Oitijjhya, and Gripper Mark the best of success on this pioneering publishing adventure! ঐতিহ্য Oitijjhya Gripper Mark Publication
https://parisinstitute.org/pict-book-receives-local-editions-in-bangladesh/

21/01/2025

In the week since its publication, Pinaki Bhattacharya’s Fulkumari: The Tale of a Refugee and a Rat in Pandemic Paris (PICT Books, 2025) has topped various bestseller lists compiled by the online retailer Amazon and received extensive media coverage in the author’s home country of Bangladesh, being featured in numerous articles and news clips. 🎈
On the US website of Amazon, the book’s top three rankings include #1 Bestseller among Historical India & South Asia Biographies, #1 Bestseller among Historical Asian Biographies, #1 New Release in the History of India, #1 New Release among Political Leader Biographies, and #3 New Release among Historical Biographies. On the Australian website of Amazon, the book’s top three rankings once again include #1 Bestseller among Historical India & South Asia Biographies and #1 Bestseller among Historical Asian Biographies as well as #2 New Release among Historical Biographies and #2 New Release among Biographies.
In Bangladeshi media, the book has been featured in articles by online news sites including Bangla News 24, Bangla Review, BD-Pratidin, Daily Janakantha, Daily Sun, Jugantor, Kaler Kantho, and MZamin. It has also been the subject of news clips released by outlets such as Kaler Kantho and Channel i. While the various news articles have commented on the book’s bestseller rankings and drawn attention to Pinaki’s reputation as a social activist, Kaler Kantho also reported that Asif Nazrul, the Bangladeshi Justice Minister, issued a congratulatory note to Pinaki on the release of the book.
We congratulate Pinaki and the entire PICT Books team on Fulkumari’s well-deserved success!
https://parisinstitute.org/pict-book-tops-bestseller-lists-receives-media-coverage/

17/01/2025

The exhibition Dünya Burada Bitsin (“May the World End Here”), curated by PICT contributor Salamis Ayşegül Şentuğ Tuğyan and Nihat Özdal, opened in Istanbul on 10 January 2025. The exhibition will welcome the public at Hasan Sarıtaş Gallery until 25 January 2025. 🎈

Dünya Burada Bitsin features videos, photography, and mixed media works by Cypriot artists Sümer Erek, Uygar Erdim, İsmail Gökçe, Nurtane Karagil, Erdoğan Kavaz, Nihat Özdal, and Rahme Veziroğlu. The exhibition finds the artists offering a creative response to Emel Kaya’s 2024 poetry book of the same name. Thematically, the poet and the artists converge on an eco-poetic inquiry and critique of the Anthropocene age, inviting the viewer to look at the world not only with a critical human eye, but also from the perspective of the non-human.

Salamis Ayşegül Şentuğ Tuğyan is a writer, poet, and educator from Cyprus. She is the host and producer of the PICT podcast mini-series Let’s Get Bored and the Creative Director of the currently ongoing redesign of the PICT website.

Previously shown in Lefkoşa and İzmir, the exhibition will travel to Paris and Berlin in the upcoming months.
https://parisinstitute.org/salamis-aysegul-sentug-tugyan-curates-exhibition-in-istanbul/

15/01/2025

New PICT Book: Fulkumari 🎈
The Tale of a Refugee and a Rat in Pandemic Paris
by Pinaki Bhattacharya
Amidst the quiet, deserted streets of pandemic Paris, a refugee from Bangladesh finds himself alone in his apartment with a tiny rat. He names her Fulkumari and forms an imaginary pact with her, reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. Telling her a story each day, the refugee unravels the layers of his past. Tales of revolution, famine, and civil war intertwine with the poetry, philosophy, and myths of an entire culture; precious moments of family intimacy come alive in flavours, smells, and sounds. As the bond between the two strengthens, each story becomes a thread in a tapestry of meaning, bravely reaffirming a world on the verge of falling apart.
https://parisinstitute.org/fulkumari/

05/01/2025

The prominent Turkish cultural website K24 has named Gender in Ottoman Constantinople by David Selim Sayers (PICT Books, 2024) as one of its “Books of the Year 2024.” 🎈

In his review, Necmi Sönmez praises the book for exploring “the position that Ottoman society granted to people defined as q***r today.” The book, Sönmez maintains, takes us back to a time “before Westernization and its distorted understanding of morality,” showing us that “Ottoman society was much more colorful and pleasure-based than we could have imagined.” In so doing, Gender in Ottoman Constantinople “overturns the taboos in the field of Ottoman studies” and presents “a turning point for gender studies.” Sönmez’ extensive review also devotes significant space to analyzing the original, 19th-century illustrations that accompany the book, claiming that they “open the door to an unknown, local, visual culture.” Sönmez sums up his review by stating that he “thoroughly relished” the book.

Gender in Ottoman Constantinople grants us a fascinating glimpse into the culture of Ottoman Constantinople and what this culture takes for granted, frowns upon, laments, and lampoons in terms of gender. Contrary to the widely-held assumption that the Ottoman gender world disintegrated in the 19th century under the influence of new and foreign gender discourses, the book goes on to show how Ottoman notions of gender continue to inform descendants of this culture even today. With its surprising and unexpected insights, Gender in Ottoman Constantinople challenges its readers to rebuild their own conceptions of gender—and history—from the ground up.

Since its foundation in 2015, K24 has established itself as one of the foremost non-profit, independent online platforms dedicated to literature, culture, and critique in Turkey. Reviewer Necmi Sönmez is a curator and art historian who has staged events and exhibitions in countries including Turkey, Germany, France, and the USA. He holds a PhD from the Goethe University Frankfurt, and his reviews, essays, and books have appeared from major publishers in Turkey and abroad. His review of Gender in Ottoman Constantinople is available in Turkish.

Gender in Ottoman Constantinople had earlier been picked as a “Book of the Month” by the major Greek cultural magazine, Athens Voice. We congratulate David, everyone at PICT Books, and our entire community for the book’s continued success!

K24

https://parisinstitute.org/pict-book-named-book-of-the-year-by-k24/

18/12/2024

NEW PICT BOOK: A Cuisine of Exile 🎈
by Gün Benderli
translated and introduced by
Evrim Emir-Sayers & David Selim Sayers
You are what you eat, the saying goes, and you become who you eat it with. After a lifetime of curating dishes and dinner companions from Paris to Istanbul and Budapest to Beijing, Gün Benderli knows this better than most. Whether discussing genius over a meal with legendary poets Nazım Hikmet, Pablo Neruda, and Nicolás Guillén or making mayonnaise with the resistance fighter Bert, whether sitting at a banquet held by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai or peddling soup to her picky grandkids, A Cuisine of Exile finds this militant radio broadcaster turned award-winning translator dishing up a feast for the stomach, heart, and mind.
https://parisinstitute.org/a-cuisine-of-exile/

17/12/2024

Cooking and Communism: The Meals and Memories of Gün Benderli 🎈
by Evrim Emir-Sayers and David Selim Sayers (Paris, France)
https://parisinstitute.org/cooking-and-communism-the-meals-and-memories-of-gun-benderli/

25/11/2024

Gift a PICT Book for the upcoming holidays 🎈

PICT BOOKS PICT Books is an imprint of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT), a non-profit, volunteer-run, independent association for research and

12/11/2024

New workshop, starting on Saturday 16th. Register through our website !

19/10/2024

The October 2024 issue of Athens Voice magazine has devoted an extensive book review to Gender in Ottoman Constantinople by David Selim Sayers (PICT Books, 2024). 🎈

In her review, Krystalli Glyniadakis praises the book for recovering a gender world “that had accompanied the societies of the Balkans and Anatolia for entire centuries” before being “sacrificed on the altar of Western scientism, Darwinian progress and national rebirth.” Despite its historical focus, Glyniadakis stresses, the book also has plenty of contemporary relevance: “it reveals to us the sources of many ‘traditional’ roles, beliefs and behaviors that we have had as a people at least until my own generation (Gen X/Millennials)–if not still.” Describing Gender in Ottoman Constantinople as “flowing” and “well-written,” Glyniadakis concludes her review by calling the book a “great pleasure.”

Gender in Ottoman Constantinople begins by granting us a fascinating glimpse into what the culture of Ottoman Constantinople takes for granted, frowns upon, laments, and lampoons in terms of gender. Next, questioning the widely-held assumption that this gender world disintegrated in the 19th century, the book demonstrates how Ottoman notions of gender continue to inform descendants of this culture even today. With its surprising and unexpected insights, Gender in Ottoman Constantinople challenges its readers to rebuild their own conceptions of gender—and history—from the ground up.

With a monthly online readership of over 2.5 million unique visitors and a weekly print readership of around 150,000, Athens Voice is one of the major cultural media outlets in Greece. Reviewer Krystalli Glyniadakis is a journalist, translator, and poet who received the Greek National Literary Award for Poetry in 2018. Her review of Gender in Ottoman Constantinople is available in Greek, accompanied by an English translation option.

We congratulate David, everyone at PICT Books, and our entire community on this special occasion! Athens Voice (official)
https://parisinstitute.org/pict-book-reviewed-in-athens-voice/

02/09/2024

PICT Books is an independent, non-profit imprint in a monopolistic, for-profit publishing world. Our aim is to create a lasting contribution to the humanities, arts, and literature—a library of voices, perspectives, and knowledge that struggle to find a place in mainstream or academic publishing because they are deemed either unprofitable or inconvenient.

As in our Arts & Humanities course program, our guiding principle is to give our authors the mental and creative freedom to communicate their passion in whatever form, length, and language serves their purposes best, unencumbered by worries about how well the work might sell, how it might better appeal to the mainstream, or how it should be changed to fit a scholarly orthodoxy.

As a non-profit publisher, we are committed to offering our authors the fairest terms possible. In a publishing world based on the exploitation of authors, translators, and other creatives of the written word, we honor this commitment by passing on 60% of net revenues directly to them.

Like all our work at PICT, our imprint is animated by an amateur spirit; not in the English sense of dilettantism, but in the French sense of passionate volunteer enthusiasm. Every aspect of the editing and production process is painstakingly handled by PICT faculty on a non-profit basis, with the aim of producing library pieces that will stand the test of time in terms of content and form alike.

From publishing to academia, however inevitable any institutionalized system confronting us might seem, we as individuals can always bond in solidarity to produce alternatives to it. The only real inevitability is change, and PICT Books is thrilled to offer a concrete example of such change, an example that we hope will serve as inspiration to others. 🎈

In Solidarity,
Your PICT Team
https://parisinstitute.org/pict-books/

26/08/2024

That’s how it goes, Laz Ismail 🎈
by Nazım Hikmet
Translated by Evrim Emir-Sayers and David Selim Sayers
https://parisinstitute.org/thats-how-it-goes-laz-ismail/

20/08/2024

Airport Thoughts 🎈
Elena Gabor
https://parisinstitute.org/airport-thoughts/