[Anthologist] Enis Akın (1964), a Turkish poet, literary critic, and translator, is one of the most controversial figures of his generation. His poetic work explored the anti-cliché, experimental, innovative areas of poetry when most of the poems at his time were either escapist or over-political due to the lingering effects of the military coup in 1980. His first poem and poetic essay appeared in Edebiyat Dostları [Friends of Literature], a monthly literary magazine in March 1988. Published by politically-left poets, Edebiyat Dostları’s mission was to balance the politic and the aesthetic in literature. He lived in Melbourne, Australia between 1992 and 1996 where he worked both professionally and studied Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Beat Generation, Jean Baudrillard, and Edward Said. Enis has been publishing his free small fanzine, beyazmanto [white cloak], since November 1991. It’s title, beyazmanto is a tribute to the renowned Turkish novelist Oğuz Atay, and it is a craft-paper representation of Enis Akin’s literary aesthetic, and political viewpoint. He has made contributions with his essays, poems, and translations to many magazines including primarily Edebiyat ve Eleştiri, Kitap-lık, Defter, Birikim, Yasak Meyve, Varlık, Heves, Öteki-siz, Siyahi, Karayazı, and Sıcak Nal. He has had numerous television appearances, and participated in panels where he provided an anti-authoritarian discourse against literature-bureaucracy (e.g. who monopolizes juries of poetry contests, government grants, and academic seats). In his essays, he has developed unique approaches to understanding important Turkish poets including Behçet Necatigil, Nâzım Hikmet, Turgut Uyar, Ece Ayhan, Can Yücel, and İlhan Berk. In 2004, Enis translated many poems including Three Women by Sylvia Plath and published a book containing his own account of Plath’s poems. His translation of For Love by Robert Creeley is published in 2021. Enis Akın has been managing Natama [Incomplet] magazine (did you get the pun?) and publishing house for the past five years. Natama’s goal is to create an alternative culture focusing on literature. He attended the 2019 Read My World poetry festival in Amsterdam in 2018 and is a member of PEN.
Some of his published works include:
Poetry: Hiç Ama Birini (1989); Puşt Ahali (2002); Öpünce Geçmez (2003); Güzel Boşluk (2008); Dağdaki Emirler (2011); Müjgân (2018)
Prose: Kekeme Türk Şiiri (2nd release), literary essays (2019); Yarın Konuşuruz, literary interviews (2020)
Transation: Aşk İçin, translation of poems by Robert Creeley (2021), Karga, translation of poems by Ted Hughes (in progress)