Marva McClean is a Jamaican born educator and writer who explores issues of ancestral heredity and the inherent tensions in the creative journey of a woman of color in the Americas. She is currently researching and writing about the emancipatory position Ashanti warrior, Nanny of the Maroons, occupies in the West Indian ideology of resistance, struggle, and empowerment.

In Bridges to Memory Dr. McClean explores the intriguing connection between culture and identity, and memory and the imagination. She writes for local newspapers and presents her work at national and international conferences and workshops. She has presented at the Miami Bookfair International, the Caribbean Conference on Literature, the Pan African Bookfest, Barnes and Noble Bookstore and Florida International University’s Women’s History Month Seminar.

Having lived in South Florida for the past twenty years, Marva McClean comments on the rich texture of the human and environmental diversity of the state: “This is a place where generations connect and cultures, races, and ethnicities intertwine. It is a place where we explore the power of literature to build and transform lives. This is a place where we acknowledge the common threads that unite humanity, where we learn from our sameness and celebrate our uniqueness.”