Marius Katiliškis

Marius Katiliškis was a Lithuanian writer in exile.

Katiliškis's parents were from Žagariškiai, on the northern border of Lithuania. The future writer was born on September 15, 1914; in Gruzdžiai, but he spent his childhood and early youth in the village of Katiliškės, a few kilometers away, from which he took his later name. He was the ninth of eleven children.

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.

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.

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, 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 on December 17, 1980.