Sunay Akın at Kocaeli Book Exhibition, May 2016

Sunay Akın (born September 12, 1962) is a Turkish poet, writer, TV host, journalist, and a philanthropist. He is the founder of Istanbul Toy Museum. Akın was born in

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Akın is best known for his poetry; his primary influences include

Orhan Veli Kanık Orhan Veli Kanık or Orhan Veli (14 April 1914 – 14 November 1950) was a Turkish poet. Kanık is one of the founders of the Garip Movement together with Oktay Rıfat and Melih Cevdet. Aiming to fundamentally transform traditional form i ...

and

Cemal Süreya Cemâl Süreya (born Cemâlettin Seber; 1931 – 9 January 1990) was a Turkish poet and writer of Kurdish– Zaza descent. Biography Süreya and his family were deported to Bilecik, a city in the Marmara Region of Turkey after the Dersim R ...

. His poems are generally lyric, short, and soft in tone. He also often makes use of satirical forms and

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

s. Akın has a collection of over 7,000 toys, some of which date back nearly 200 years. 4,000 of them are on display in the

İstanbul Toy Museum The İstanbul Toy Museum ( tr, İstanbul Oyuncak Müzesi) is a toy museum located in the Göztepe neighbourhood of Kadıköy district in İstanbul, Turkey. The museum was founded by the Turkish poet and novelist, Sunay Akın, in 2005. The muse ...

which opened in 2005. He co-hosts a

TV show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...

called "Yaşamdan Dakikalar" (''"Minutes from Life"'') on the TV channel tv8, together with Hıncal Uluç, Haşmet Babaoğlu, and Nebil Özgentürk. He has hosted other TV and radio programmes such as "Mahya Işıkları", "Stüdyo İstanbul" and "İzler" on the TV channel TRT 2, "Gezgin Korkuluk" on the TV channel tv8, and "Veşaire...Veşaire" on the radio channel Yaşam Radyo. He lectures at

Marmara University Marmara University ( Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a public university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university is named after the Sea of Marmara and was founded as a university in 1982. However, it was created in 1883 under the name of ''H ...

, and Müjdat Gezen Art School, as well as at his own institution, the

. Akın regularly stages

one man show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...

s in Turkey and abroad, and participates in panels and conferences. He contributes as a regular columnist to the newspaper

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pr ...

. His column is named after his 2004 book, "Kule Cambazı" (''"Tower Acrobat"''), in reference to İstanbul's

Maiden's Tower __NOTOC__ The Maiden's Tower ( tr, Kız Kulesi), also known as Leander's Tower (''Tower of Leandros'') since the medieval Byzantine period, is a tower on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus strait, from the coast of Ü ...

Awards

*1987, Halil Kocagöz Poem Awards for his collection of unprinted poems "Noktalı Virgül" (''"Semicolon"'') *1990, Orhon Murat Arıburnu Poem Awards for his poem "Makiler" (''" Maquis"'')

Works

Earlier works

His first poems were published in various periodicals in 1984. In 1989, he founded the poetry

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

"Yeni Yaprak" (''"New Page", "New Leaf"'') in reference to

Orhan Veli Orhan Ghazi ( ota, اورخان غازی; tr, Orhan Gazi, also spelled Orkhan, 1281 – March 1362) was the second bey of the Ottoman Beylik from 1323/4 to 1362. He was born in Söğüt, as the son of Osman I. In the early stages of his ...

's landmark 1949 journal "Yaprak", whose logo was adopted in the new publication. "Yeni Yaprak" was published in collaboration with the poets Ramazan Üren and Akgün Akova, twice a week in the beginning, on a monthly basis later, reaching a total of sixteen issues. In 1990, Akın took part in the publication of "Olmaz" (''Won't Happen''), a poetry journal. In 1991, in one of Yaprak's last issues, a poem titled "Barış için dizeler" (''"Lines for Peace"'') brought together 81 Turkish poets each writing parts of the verses, unaware of what the others composed. Some among the 81 poets were well-known names of

Turkish literature Turkish literature ( tr, Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and written texts in Turkic languages. The Ottoman and Azerbaijani forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, were highly influenced by Persian a ...

, such as

Can Yücel Can Yücel (; August 21, 1926 – August 12, 1999) was a Turkish poet noted for his use of colloquial language. Biography Can Yücel was the son of a former Minister of National Education, Hasan Âli Yücel, who left his mark on the history of e ...

, Hilmi Yavuz,

Lale Müldür Lale Müldür (b. 1956, Aydın) is a Turkish poet and writer. She finished high school at Robert College. She went to Florence, Italy, on a poetry scholarship. On her return to Turkey, she attended the Middle East Technical University Electroni ...

Semih Kaplanoğlu Semih Kaplanoğlu (born 4 April 1963) is a Turkish screenwriter, film director and producer. Life and career In 1984, Kaplanoğlu moved to Istanbul and worked for a couple of years as a copywriter for advertising companies like Güzel Sanatlar ...

, and Süreyya Berfe.

Bibliography

* "Antik Acılar" (1991, 1995, 1999) (''"Antique sufferings"'') * "Şairler Matinesi" (1993) (''"Poets' matinée"'') * "Şiir Cumhuriyeti" (1993) (''"The Republic of Poetry"'') - joint collection * "Veşaire...Veşaire" (1994), which could be translated as ''"And to poets...And to poets"'', a pun derived from "Ve saire...Ve saire" (''"Et cetera...Et cetera..."'') * "Küçük Asker...Küçük Asker..." (1995) (''"Little soldier..Little soldier"'' referring to a popular Turkish children's song of the same name) * "Makiler" (1996, 1999) (''"Maquis"'') * "Kaza Süsü" (1997) (''"Freak accident"'') * "Kırılan Canlar" (1997) (''"Broken Souls"'') * "İstanbul'un Nazım Planı" (''Structural plan of Istanbul''), with the word "Nazım" propitious to a pun since it also means ''"in verse"'' or may refer to the poet Nazım Hikmet. * "62 Tavşanı" (2000) (''"Rabbit of 62"'') in reference to the simple way of drawing a rabbit, by writing down 62 first and then connecting the digits with two horizontal lines. Akın was born in 1962. * "Ayçöreği ve Denizyıldızı" (2000) (''"Croissant and starfish"'') * "Kız Kulesi'ndeki Kızılderili" (2000) (''"The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Redskin in Maiden's Tower"'') * "Önce Çocuklar ve Kadınlar" (2000) (''"Children and women first"'') * "İstanbul'da Bir Zürafa" (2001) (''"A giraffe in İstanbul"'') * "Onlar Hep Oradaydı" (2002) (''"They were always there"'') * "Kırdığımız Oyuncaklar" (2004) (''"The toys we broke"'') * "Kule Cambazı" (2004) (''"Tower Acrobat"'')

Periodicals

His poems were published in many periodicals and anthologies such as Milliyet Sanat, Yeni Düşün, Varlık, Broy, Yarın, ''Journal of poetry & literature''. He also wrote essays in a number of periodicals such as the Cumhuriyet supplement "Gezi" covering subjects such as poetry and history of art.

References

References on his books, some of which were printed outside Turkey are as follows: : : Çınar Yayınları - Sunay Akın

Notes

External links

Sunay Akın Fan SiteSunay Akın Hayran KulübüPoems

Sunay AkınSunay AkınSunay AkınSunay AkınSunay AkınSunay AkınInfoBibliotheek 2003-Nl
*http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poets/sitor-situmorang {{DEFAULTSORT:Akin, Sunay Turkish poets Journalists from Istanbul Turkish columnists Living people 1962 births Writers from Istanbul People from Trabzon Cumhuriyet people Museum founders Turkish television presenters Turkish storytellers Television people from Istanbul