Listen "S02 E07 Ekow Duker"
Episode Synopsis
Ekow Duker is the author of White Wahala, Dying in New York, The God Who Made Mistakes, and most recently Yellowbone. Ekow was a finalist for the European Union Literary Award in 2011/2012 and is currently a judge in the fiction category of the Sunday Times Literary Awards.
Ekow joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how he got his start writing anecdotes about his life while working as an engineer in the oil fields of Libya and Algeria. He describes how he self-published his first novel, only to have a major publisher approach him to publish it.
Fiona asks Ekow about the gap between his extremely contained and thoughtful real-life persona, and his wild and provocative fiction. Gail asks Ekow to describe what it is like when his writing is going well, and it feels more like taking dictation from an external source than creating it from scratch. Ekow breaks down his backlist for us, taking us through the inspiration and process behind each book.
For more details about the books, movies, series, and podcasts that are discussed on the show, sign up here for our weekly newsletter. Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram · Chat with us on Twitter · Join our Facebook group · Subscribe to us on YouTube · Join our newsletter · Ask your writing-related questions here
Ekow joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how he got his start writing anecdotes about his life while working as an engineer in the oil fields of Libya and Algeria. He describes how he self-published his first novel, only to have a major publisher approach him to publish it.
Fiona asks Ekow about the gap between his extremely contained and thoughtful real-life persona, and his wild and provocative fiction. Gail asks Ekow to describe what it is like when his writing is going well, and it feels more like taking dictation from an external source than creating it from scratch. Ekow breaks down his backlist for us, taking us through the inspiration and process behind each book.
For more details about the books, movies, series, and podcasts that are discussed on the show, sign up here for our weekly newsletter. Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram · Chat with us on Twitter · Join our Facebook group · Subscribe to us on YouTube · Join our newsletter · Ask your writing-related questions here
More episodes of the podcast The Hidden Lives of Writers
S06 E10 Lauri Kubuitsile
10/11/2025
S06 E09 Anna Stroud
03/11/2025
S06 E08 Tom Eaton
27/10/2025
S06 E07 Claire Robertson
20/10/2025
S06 E06 Zibu Sithole
13/10/2025
S06 E05 Tony Park
06/10/2025
S06 E04 Onke Mazibuko
29/09/2025
S06 E03 Bonnie Espie
22/09/2025
S06 E02 Marina Auer
15/09/2025
S06 E01 Alistair Mackay
08/09/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.