Born on 23 December 1941 in Žvaginiai (Klaipėdos r.). Died 16 10 2004 in Klaipėda.
Studied at Kaunas Medical Institute (1959-1965), worked as a doctor in Plungė and later in Klaipėda.
He wrote together with his brother Petras Dirgėla until 1981.
Debuted with a book of novellas and short stories "Žaibai gęsta rudenį" (1971). From the context of the prose of young writers of the time, the collection was distinguished by its attention to the historical and cultural past (the short story "Šventosios uostas") and greater freedom of form. These promising tendencies were developed in other collections of short stories and novellas ("Pasimatymai" ("Dating", 1973, "The Passion's Forgiveness", 1977) and especially in novels. In these novels, the fate of the individual is strongly linked to the processes of consolidation and/or disintegration of the community (family, tribe, nation) that closely surrounds him. The novels Linkime, Travel for Yourself (1976), Sage Hill (1977), Pogodalis (1978), and Sherman Wine (1980) were oppositional to the prevailing trend in Soviet large-scale prose in their loose structure, metaphorical style, and the creation of a spiritually active hero committed to ethnic values.