Gert Friedrich Jonke (8 February 1946 – 4 January 2009) was an Austrian poet, playwright and novelist.

Life

Jonke was born and educated in Klagenfurt, Austria. He attended the Gymnasium (university preparatory school) and the Conservatory. After he served his mandatory military service, he continued his studies at the College of Music and Representative Art in Vienna in the Film and Television Department. He did not, however, complete his studies there, nor his studies of History, Philosophy, Music Theory, or German Studies at the University of Vienna which followed. He became friends with the writers' circle of Graz, a centre of the Austrian literary avant garde of the time. In 1969 he published his first novel, Geometrischer Heimatroman (Geometric Regional Novel), which met with some success. The book received a positive review by Peter Handke in Der Spiegel. In 1971 he received a scholarship to study in West Berlin, where he stayed for five years. He then lived for a year in London, followed by extensive travels throughout the Middle East and South America. In 1977, he moved with his partner to Argentina, where he met Borges. He returned to Austria in the 1980s. Jonke died of cancer at the age of 62 on 4 January 2009, in Vienna. He was given a grave of honor in the Zentralfriedhof, the central cemetery in Vienna.

Works

Prose

Plays and poems

Other works

Compilations in English

Awards and honors