Interviewed at his home in Loveland by Sandra Grady
8 October 2011

Fon Ngu grew up in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, in a place called Santa, which is the name for a long hill or plateau. In his childhood, his father would tell stories to entertain the family after dinner, so at a young age Fon became passionate about storytelling. Because he came from a family of nine children, he knew he would have to work to support himself, so as a young adult, he worked for the National Produce Marketing Board as its Press Secretary. While there, he became fascinated by the bidding process used in commodities trading and wanted to study Economics. Because a colleague of his went to Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, he applied to study there and was accepted.

Even as he pursued his studies in Economics, he maintained a passion for writing stories. Consequently, he took Creative Writing in addition to his main coursework. After he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics with a French minor, he met a fellow Cameroonian in Columbus; they married and had a family together. He also completed a Masters in Economics from the University of Toledo, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration degree through the University of Phoenix, for which he is writing a dissertation on Sentencing Disparities in the US Criminal Justice system.

Despite these commitments, Fon gets up early every day to write from his office, creating primarily in English even though it is his third language. He has recently completed a novel titled Union Asunder, which is a fictionalized account of his uncle’s troubled marriage told from the perspective of the uncle’s sister, who is also Fon’s mother. He is looking for an editor for the book prior to publishing it. In addition, he has a number of stories in development, and would like to create a situation comedy about being a part of an African immigrant generation in America, sandwiched between the traditional expectations of his parents back home and the American identity of his teenagers who were born and raised in Ohio. He and his family live in Loveland.