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. Despite this, 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 through the Middle East and South America, after which he settled again in Austria.
Jonke died of cancer at the age of 62 on 4 January 2009 in Vienna. He was given a grave of honor ("Ehrengrab") in the Zentralfriedhof, the central cemetery in Vienna.
Recognition
1977 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize
1980 Literature Prize of the University City of Marburg
1984 Manuscripts prize of Styria
1987 Austrian Prize for Literature
1988 Prize of the Frankfurt Authors Foundation
1990-1993 Robert Musil scholarship
1991 International Bodensee-Culture Prize
1993 Merit Award of the City of Vienna
1994 Anton Wildgans Prize
1997 Erich Fried Prize
1997 Franz Kafka Literature Prize of the city of Klosterneuburg
1998 Berlin Literature Prize
2001 Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature
2003 Nestroy Theater Prize Best Author for Chorphantasie
2005 Kleist Prize
2006 Arthur Schnitzler Prize
2006 Nestroy Theatre Prize Best Author for Die versunkene Kathedrale (The Sunken Cathedral)
2008 Nestroy Theatre Prize Best Author for Free Fall
2008 Homage to Czerny: Studies in Virtuoso Technique (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press)
2009 Blinding Moment: Four Pieces About Composers (Riverside: Ariadne Press)
2009 System of Vienna: From Heaven Street to Earth Mound Square (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press)
2010 The Distant Sound (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press) June 2010.
2012 Awakening to the Great Sleep War (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press) Forthcoming December 2012.
Theatreplays
At that time, Graz, Forum Stadtpark Graz 1989
The Perfidy of the Wind Machines
Gentle Rage or the Ear Engineer, Theater Sonata, Styriate Graz 1990
Opus 111, Volkstheater Vienna 1993
The Presence of Memory, Volkstheater Vienna 1995
There sing the Stones, Stadttheater Klagenfurt 1998
Insektarium, Volkstheater Vienna 1999
The Birds, UA Volkstheater Wien 2002
Choir Phantasy, Schauspielhaus Graz, 2003
Speaker around the Clock, Semper-Depot Vienna, 2004
Strange Case, Ruhrtriennale, 2005
The Sunken Cathedral, Burgtheater Vienna 2005
Gentle Rage or The Ear Engineer, First Performance in Sign Language with the deaf actor Werner Mössler by ARBOS - Company for Music and Theatre Vienna 2006
Free Fall, UA Akademietheater Vienna 2008
Bursting Suddenly, aktionstheater ensemble at the Festspielhaus Bregenz and Semper Depot Vienna 2008
