Sunay Akın (born 1962, Trabzon, Turkey) is a Turkish poet, writer, TV host, and journalist. He is also a philanthropist and is the founder of Istanbul Toy Museum, a showcase of thousands of antique toys from around the world.
Best known for his poetry, Akın's primary influences include Orhan Veli Kanık and Cemal Süreya. His poems are generally lyric, short, and soft in tone. He also often makes use of satirical forms and puns.
Sunay Akın also has a collection of over 7,000 toys, some of which date back nearly 200 years.[1] 4,000 of them are on display in the İstanbul Toy Museum, located in the Göztepe neighborhood of İstanbul since its opening on April 23, 2005; a date chosen for its significance as National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey[1]
He hosts a TV show called "Yaşamdan Dakikalar" ("Minutes from Life") on the TV channel TV8, together with such prominent names of Turkey's media as Hıncal Uluç, Haşmet Babaoğlu, and Nebil Özgentürk.[2][3] In the past, he also 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, as well as in Müjdat Gezen Art School, another well-known name in Turkey's world of performing arts. He also lectures at his own institution, the İstanbul Toy Museum.
Akın regularly stages one man shows in Turkey and abroad, and participates in panels and conferences. He also contributes as a regular columnist to the newspaper Cumhuriyet; his column is named after his 2004 book, "Kule Cambazı" ("Tower Acrobat"), in reference to İstanbul's Maiden's Tower.
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His first poems were published in various periodicals in 1984. In 1989, he founded the poetry journal "Yeni Yaprak" ("New Page", "New Leaf") in reference to Orhan Veli'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.
A year later, in 1990, Sunay Akın also took part in the publication of another journal of poetry named "Olmaz" (Won't Happen). 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, such as Can Yücel, Hilmi Yavuz, Lale Müldür, Semih Kaplanoğlu, and Süreyya Berfe.
His poems were published in many periodicals and anthologies such as Milliyet Sanat, Yeni Düşün, Varlık, Broy, Yarın, Journal of poetry & literature.[4][5] 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 on his books, some of which were printed outside Turkey are as follows:[6][7][8] [9][10][11] [12] [13] [14]