Vilis Lācītis was born in Riga in 1975. His first short story was published in 1991, when he was 16. In his late twenties he moved to live abroad, first to the UK and then to Canada, where he resides now. His first novel “Stroika ar skatu uz Londonu” (Building Site with a London View), about Eastern European immigrants working in construction in the UK, was published in 2010 and received attention as the most read piece of original literature in Latvia that year. Immigration and construction work themes feature prominently in most of his writing, especially his second novel “Pamodināt Lāčplēsi” (To Awake the Hero, 2011), as well as in the thriller “Amsterdamas prinicips” (The Amsterdam Principle, 2013), and especially “Oxforda ar skatu uz universitāti” (Oxford with a University View, 2023), which is written as a sequel to his first piece. “Garais ceļš uz Hantimansijsku” (The Long Way to Hanti-Mansyisk, 2012), written together with Šmidzis K. Vāverts, takes the reader into the world of fantasy adventures among young underground musicians in the 1990s Latvia. Lācītis also has published one collection of short stories called “Sekss un vardarbība” (Sex and Violence, 2018), which is mostly dedicated to the life of construction workers, in Latvia and abroad.

The name Vilis Lācītis is a take on a controversial Latvian author Vilis Lācis, a classic novelist who was involved in crimes against humanity during the Soviet regime. “Lācis” means “bear”, while Lācītis is a diminutive form, akin to “Teddy bear”. For Lācītis, satire and biting humor are his main modus operandi, his method to turn upside down the world of those who might be enjoying their power now, but never know what will happen to them later on.