Gisèle Prassinos is a French writer associated with the surrealist movement.

She was born in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Turkey and emigrated to France with her family at the age of two, where they lived initially in Nanterre

Nanterre

Nanterre is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located west of the center of Paris.Nanterre is the capital of the Hauts-de-Seine department as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Nanterre....

. Her brother Mario Prassinos

Mario Prassinos

Mario Prassinos was a French artist and illustrator of Greek origin.He was born in Istanbul on 30 July 1916, son of Victorine and Lysandre Prassinos, and moved to France with his family in 1922. His sister Gisèle Prassinos is a surrealist writer.His first exhibition took place in 1938 at the...

 is an artist and illustrator.

Her writing was discovered by André Breton

André Breton

André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....

 in 1934, when she was just fourteen, and published in the French surrealist magazine Minotaure

Minotaure

Minotaure, published between 1933 and 1939, was a Surrealist-oriented publication founded by Albert Skira in Paris. The editors were André Breton and Pierre Mabille. It was a luxurious publication, sporting original artworks on its cover by prestigious artists like Pablo Picasso...

 and the Belgian periodical Documents 34. Her first book, La Sauterelle arthritique (The Arthritic Grasshopper) was published in 1935 with a preface by Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...

 and a photograph by Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...

.

Marianne van Hirtum

Marianne van Hirtum

Marianne van Hirtum was a Belgian author writing in the French language, connected with the surrealist movement.-Bibliography:* Poèmes pour les petits pauvres, Paris, Seghers 1953.* Les Insolites, Paris, Gallimard 1956....

observed that the surrealists of the time recognised these early writings as a "veritable illustration of automatic language par excellence".

After World War II Prassinos's association with organised surrealism was limited, but she has continued to publish widely.