Hakan Altun On Life & Everything Pieces

A dark wooden desk by a rain-streaked window at night. On it: a lit lamp, a stack of books, dried flowers, pens in a cup, a tablet in a black case, an opened envelope with a letter half out of it, a closed green notebook, and a cup of coffee. Through the window, a wet street at dusk with tram wires, a passing tram, and blurred lights.

Written in Ink The Unwritten Year Jun 4, 2026 · 6 min

A round table covered with a white tablecloth, set outdoors on a stone terrace overlooking the sea at sunset. Five wooden chairs surround the table. The warm, golden light of the setting sun illuminates plates piled with various cheeses, small bowls of olives and nuts, and glasses of red wine. String lights hang from the branches of a tree overhead.

Let’s Have Some Cheese Close Enough to Belong, Far Enough to Forget Jun 1, 2026 · 6 min

A dark, cinematic night photograph of a crowded bar street in Kadıköy, İstanbul, seen from behind the crowd. Dozens of people stand with their backs to the camera, drinks in hand, facing down a narrow wet-cobblestone street that recedes into deep shadow. Bars and pubs line both sides under warm wall lamps; a red neon PUB sign glows on the right, with cooler blue light further down the street. No faces are visible; everyone is turned away, dissolving into the movement of the street. In the lower-left foreground, two figures in leather jackets stand half-turned, holding plastic cups.

None of Us Are The Hunger to Remain Apart May 31, 2026 · 5 min

A dim İstanbul café at dusk. On the left, a rakı table with glasses and meze beneath framed portraits and a warm lamp, a mosque silhouetted against a fading sunset through the window. On the right, two cups of coffee on a small table by a rain-streaked window looking out on the Maiden's Tower under a blue, overcast sky.

The Cost Two Kinds of Price May 29, 2026 · 5 min

A rainy night street viewed from inside a flat through an open vasistas window; sodium streetlamp on wet asphalt; a parked car in the foreground; a trailer with a faintly lit window in the distance.

Collateral A Turn Too Early Apr 28, 2026 · 7 min

İdealtepe coast at sunrise, İstanbul

The Best Ideas Come When You Let Go Default Mode Network and the Art of Not Thinking Mar 8, 2026 · 3 min

Two coffees gone cold at a table by the window

The Empathy Paradox Outside Every Story but Our Own Mar 4, 2026 · 4 min

It starts as a shield. It ends as a weapon.

It Is Either from Love or Fear Fear Wears Love’s Face—and Speaks Its Language Mar 1, 2026 · 5 min

Read everything The On Series

Not being caught carries its own sentence.

On Lying Not Being Caught Carries Its Own Sentence. Mar 12, 2026 · 2 min

Misperception is a corridor whose architect burned the blueprint and moved in.

On Perceiving Misperception Is a Corridor Whose Architect Burned the Blueprint. Mar 14, 2026 · 5 min

A room full of directors and no audience.

On Looking A Room Full of Directors and No Audience. Mar 22, 2026 · 4 min

Forgiveness is a corridor, handing out a permit at the exit door.

On Forgiveness Cruelty Made Architectural. Mar 29, 2026 · 3 min

The corridor narrows in adversity. The man who keeps ironing his shirt keeps walking through it.

On Keeping The Corridor Narrows in Adversity. Apr 2, 2026 · 3 min

An empty school corridor in the late afternoon. Warm amber light spills through the open doors at the far end, throwing a single long shadow across the polished tiles. The walls are dark, the light ahead is not.

On Longing Lighter. Smaller. Younger. Apr 2, 2026 · 8 min

I forgot I had a cat.

On Silence I Forgot I Had a Cat. Apr 2, 2026 · 3 min

Şafak’s Arc

A young man in a leather chair facing a mahogany desk in a sunlit office

The Poise They Must Know What They’re Doing Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min

A nostalgic late 1980s setting on a wooden table with a lace tablecloth, featuring a Superman IV VHS tape, a school report card with ’Pekiyi’ grades, a glass bottle of Fanta, a Walkman with headphones, and a bowl of roasted chickpeas.

The Joy The Summer of Superman and Straight A’s Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min

A lone car on an Aegean coastal road stretching toward a vanishing point

The Anxiety The Road to Nowhere Apr 13, 2026 · 15 min

A wide cinematic photograph of a small rocky cove at sunset, taken from a height. The sun sits low on the sea horizon to the left, casting a long golden trail across the gently rippled water. Soft pink and amber clouds stretch across the sky. To the right, scrub-covered limestone cliffs rise in deep silhouette along the coastline. A dark sedan with its interior softly lit is parked alone on a rocky promontory in the lower right of the frame, facing outward over the water. Low brush and pale stones fill the foreground. The scene is still and unpeopled, saturated with the last warmth of the day.

The Cove A Command I No Longer Knew How to Give Apr 22, 2026 · 2 min

A detailed close-up photograph of a man’s right hand wearing a white cuff and a silver-link watch. His index finger is making contact with the base of a crystal-patterned whiskey tumbler filled with water. The tumbler is resting centered on a circular, black, stitched-edge leather coaster. This coaster is placed upon a white marble serving tray with distinct grid lines, resting on a white marble countertop. In the blurred bokeh background, a candlelit dinner table with four people laughing and raising wine glasses is visible through a large window overlooking the Istanbul Bosphorus and bridge at night. The man is completely disconnected from the social gathering.

Handled Fractions of a Millimeter Apr 23, 2026 · 5 min

The Fragments cover

The Fragments A speculative narrative on memory, time, technology, and ordinary life. Book · 2026 More

Moris About

Everything, in one place

Pieces

Essays, short fiction, and other writing.

The On Series

Seven essays on what we build inside ourselves—and why.

Şafak’s Arc from The Fragments

How a boy becomes someone who knows where to put his hands.