J. K. Ewers was a schoolteacher from 1924 until 1947 when he became a professional writer. He taught in the Western Australian wheatbelt during the 1920s and then in the Perth metropolitan area.
In 1930, he assisted Walter Murdoch to found the Australian Reading Circle. He became the foundation President of the WA Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1938, served another term in 1946-19477, and was made a Life Member in 1967.
Ewers also wrote The Story of the Pipe-line (1935), an account of the construction of the Coolgardie water scheme,Bruce Rock: The Story of a District (1959) and The Western Gateway : 100 Years Of Local Government in Fremantle, Western Australia (1948).