Marius Katiliškis

Most of his other works were first published in Chicago, although his most famous work, Miškais ateina ruduo (1957), was republished in 1969 in Soviet Lithuania, a rarity among émigré writers. A film based on this book was released in 1990. Some critics consider this work the best prose work written in Lithuanian. Early critics compared the novel to Flemish painting.

Katiliškis spent time in various displaced persons camps, studying art in Freiburg, a noted cultural center for displaced Lithuanians, where he met and was engaged to the poet Zinaida Nagytė [lt], who wrote under the pen name Liūnė Sutema. In 1949, he emigrated to the United States, living in New York and Chicago. He worked at various factories and menial jobs in the Chicago area, including at the Kimball Piano factory. The writer built his own house on the outskirts of Lemont, Illinois, and lived there until his death in 1980.

As the German Army was retreating from the Eastern Front in 1944, Katiliškis joined the short-lived Fatherland Defense Force and fought the Red Army at Seda, Lithuania. Some of his experiences retreating from Lithuania to Germany were the basis for his biographical novel Išėjusiems negrįžti (No return for the departed). In fear of being deported back to the Soviet Union, he changed his name to Marius Katiliškis.

He attended school in Žagarė and worked on his father's farm. In 1931, he was called up for service in the Lithuanian Army as a radio operator. Returning from the army, he found work in the Pasvalys library, which was renamed in his honor in 1994. In 1941, he married the mathematics teacher Elzė Avižonytė.

Katiliškis's published his first poems at the age of 17 in 1931 in the Šiauliai weekly Naujienos, and he continued publishing poetry and prose in various Lithuanian publications. A manuscript of a collection of short stories submitted to a publisher was lost during the war and rediscovered and published only in 2003.

Marius Katiliškis (born Albinas Marius Vaitkus; 15 September 1914 – 17 December 1980) was a Lithuanian writer in exile.