Residency
The PICT Senlis Nazım Hikmet Residency: A one-week residency for poets and translators of poetry
One week's free accommodation in Senlis for a poet or translator of poetry, from anywhere and at any stage. Applications by 31 December 2026.
Organized by the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT)
Nazım Hikmet (1902–1963) was a poet for whom life and work were inseparable. Born in Ottoman Salonika and spending his life across Turkey, Russia, and Eastern Europe, he was at once profoundly rooted and deeply transnational. His art testifies to an expansive love of humanity: an attention to ordinary lives, love, suffering, dignity, and hope. At the same time, Nazım’s humanism was inseparable from his activist ethos. His political commitments led to years of prison and exile, while in later life, he was closely associated with international movements for peace. One of the most widely translated poets of the twentieth century, Nazım has travelled from one language to the next through countless acts of translation, many undertaken by poets themselves.
In his spirit, the PICT Senlis Nazım Hikmet Residency welcomes poets and translators of poetry working in any language. The residency is open to applicants from anywhere in the world, with no restrictions based on nationality, age, publication history, or career stage.
The Town
The historic town of Senlis lies forty minutes from downtown Paris and twenty minutes from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Its Roman walls and arena, medieval fortifications, cathedral, and narrow streets remain part of everyday life. Surrounded by orchards, fields, and forest, the town offers an unusually inspiring setting for intellectual and artistic work.
The Residency
One residency is awarded each year. It consists of one week of free accommodation at the PICT Senlis Retreat, to be taken between the beginning of May and the end of September. Travel and living expenses are not covered.
The residency carries no required output or program of activities: the resident’s time is their own. Residents may be considered for publication in a collective anthology or individual chapbook through PICT Books or its sister publishing house, MM Éditions.
Applicants should submit:
- a representative sample of original poems or poetry in translation;
- a statement of max. 1 page explaining how their work relates to the spirit of the residency;
- a biographical sketch of max. 1 page;
- three preferred residency weeks between May and September 2027.
Applications may be submitted in any language.
All materials should be sent to nazimhikmet@parisinstitute.org by 31 December 2026.
Selection
Applications will be reviewed by a jury whose permanent members are Maria Matalaev, writer, translator and publisher; Murat Narcı, scholar of literature; and Gaye Petek, writer and translator. They will be joined, where necessary, by invited jury members able to address the languages and other specificities of individual applications.
The selected resident will be announced in February 2027.