Marnix Gijsen started his literary career as a poet within the expressionist group "Ruimte" (Space) their illustrated magazine. His most important poem was "Lof-litanie van de Heilige Franciscus van Assisië" (Praise of Saint Francis of Assisi) (1920). In his early period he came into contact with the Flemish poets Paul van Ostaijen, Karel van den Oever, and Victor J. Brunclair. After a study trip to the United States, he wrote the story "Ontdek Amerika" (Discover America) (1927). He wrote essays on art, such as on Karel van Mander (1922), Jozef Cantré, (1933), and Hans Memlinc (1939), and he wrote daily literary criticisms. He was a close friend of the Belgian writer Suzanne Lilar, and he wrote the afterword in the 1976 Dutch translation of Lilar's "Le Couple" (1963).