W. B. Garvey

W. B. Garvey is a relative of the famous pan-Africanist and Jamaican National Hero, Marcus Garvey, which led to his personal connection to Marcus Garvey’s widow, Amy Jacques Garvey. While going through his deceased father's papers, Garvey learned that his grandfather had been a railroad engineer who worked on the Panama Canal during its construction. That revelation inspired him to fulfill his early dreams of becoming a writer, and sparked years of research and correspondence that led to the writing of White Gold and Panama Fever: Digging Down Gold Mountain.

His new and critically-acclaimed novel, Independence Blues, draws on his early life in Los Angeles and stories of his parents' experiences in the United States and Canada from 1946 through 1963. Interwoven with the story of Madeline and Emerson Gardner's lives, is the family's 1963 drive across the southern tier of the United States, from Los Angeles to Miami, as seen through the eyes of their 9-year-old son who is bewildered by the rising tensions provoked by the civil rights movement and the conflicts between his parents as their once happy marriage dissolves in bitterness.

A classically-trained violinist, Mr. Garvey has performed as soloist with renowned symphony orchestras and as a recitalist in major U.S. concert halls. Garvey has appeared with the New York City Opera and the Black Music Repertory Ensemble and made studio recordings with major artists such as Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett and Wynton Marsalis, as well as playing for over a hundred film scores including Martin Scorsese’s Age of Innocence, Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo, and Spike Lee's Malcolm X.

W. B. Garvey was born in Los Angeles to Jamaican immigrants. His writing has appeared in several publications including the Killens Review of Arts & Letters. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Garvey has lived in Los Angeles, Kingston, London, and New York City. He now resides and writes in Phoenix, Arizona.