The author of this work, Hikmet Altınkaynak, is a graduate of İstanbul University's Faculty of Letters. He is a critic of contemporary literary history as well as the social trends that comprise it. He has hosted literary discussion programs on television and radio, and has worked as a journalist and as a journal editor, manager, writer, and publisher. Altınkaynak's work has been included in numerous journals and course texts.  He is currently an Instructor of Turkish language at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul. His project, "The Dictionary of Authors and Poets in Turkish Literature" is much more than a simple dictionary.  It can be considered an encyclopedia, guidebook, or a general source of information.  Regardless of what one calls it, this work is an unequaled treasure of thirteen centuries of Turkish literary history, and includes entries on approximately 1400 poets and writers.