Reinhard Jirgl (born 16 January 1953 in East-Berlin) is a German writer.
Jirgl was born in Berlin-Friedrichshain.[1] He became a skilled worker for electromechanics. Then he completed a degree in electronics at Humboldt University, Berlin.[1] He made first attempts at prose during his studies in the early 1970s.[1] From 1975 he worked as an engineer at the Academy of Sciences. He gave up his profession in 1978 to devote more time to writing.[2] He worked as a lighting and service technician at the Volksbühne in Berlin.[2] After submitting his first novel Mutter Vater Roman to a Berlin publishing house in 1985, he was accused of a "non-Marxist conception of history".[2] The publication of the novel was refused.[2] Until 1989, none of his manuscripts were published.[2] Since 2009 he has been a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature.[2] and he is member of the PEN Centre Germany.[3]
In 2010 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize by the German Academy for Language and Literature.[4] His 2013 novel Nichts von euch auf Erden was shortlisted for the German Book Prize.[5]
At the beginning of 2017, Jirgl withdrew completely from the public.[6] He lives in Berlin.[6]