Born in 1958 in Kınık, İzmir he completed his secondary education in Bergama Lycee in 1975. After studying Architecture in Ankara Engineering and Architecture High School, he got his bachelor’s degree in Law from Dokuz Eylül University. Due to the 1980 coup d’etat in 1985 he had to move in Amsterdam for eight years where he gave many concerts with his music group Hezarfen in different parts of Europe. In 1990 with the arrangements of Şanar Yurdatapan he released his first solo album “Bir Yalnızlık Ezgisi”. In the album he performed adaptations from the works of famous poets such as Nazım Hikmet, Can Yücel, Ülkü Tamer, Muzaffer Erdost and Louis Aragon as well as his own lyrics and compositions. On his return to Turkey in 1993 he joined the famous music band Ezginin Günlüğü. He contributed to the group with his compositions and vocals in eleven albums. In 2005 he released the album “Deli Bu Dünya” (This World is Mad) under the Project of Destur. In the same year parting with Ezginin Günlüğü he released his second solo album “Solo”. Almost a hundred song of Hüsnü Arkan was released since 2010. In 2013 he released his new solo album “Yalnız Değiliz” (We are not Alone).  

During these years Hüsnü Arkan carried on with literature. His first novel Ölü Kelebeklerin Dansı (The Dance of Dead Butterflies) was published by Metis Publishing House in 1998. In the novel he mainly focused on issues of global injustice and immigration. In his second novel Menekşeler, Atlar, Oburlar (Violets, Horses, Gluttons) which was published by Om Publishing House in 2001 he dealt with the fascistic aura of 12 September militarp coup, political power and the relation of the individual both with power and her/his own fate. He published his third novel Uzun bir Yolculuğun Bittiği Yer (The End-Point of a Long Journey) in 2005 with the label of Yapı Kredi Publishing. In the novel which dealt with the 1914 Orient War he investigated the influence of war on human fate in a wide area extending from Istanbul to Middle Asia within a hundred years time.  The same year he began to write fort he website iktidarsiz.com with the writers Yiğit Bener and Levent Mete. In the website almost seventy articles of him were released. His poems were also published in 2005 by Seyhan Publishing under the heading of Hiçe Doğru (Towards Nothing). His fourth novel Uyku (Sleep) was published in 2008 by İthaki Publishing. In the novel where he included fantastic elements as in the first novel Arkan analysed the concept counter-utopia and the relations among individuals in the political plane. And his fifth and last novel Mino’nun Siyah Gülü (Mino’s Black Rose) where focused on issues like justice, morality and the relation of the individual with her/his fate was published in 2011 by Kırmızı Kedi Publishing House. Hüsnü Arkan is actively carrying on his musical and literary projects from Istanbul.