Composer and author Steven Wesley Jackson has written solo, chamber, choral, and symphonic music that connects classical music with the modern world. He has been twice named a national finalist for the 2025 American Prize in Composition. His compositions, published by Mount Auburn Press, have been performed by Juventas New Music Ensemble, Mount Auburn Arts Ensemble, New Arts Philharmonia, and Summer Winds Quintet, among others. Before turning to composition full-time, he was a classical clarinetist performing for four decades internationally and in many of New England’s leading ensembles, including three decades with Boston Lyric Opera. Steven’s two-volume music theory book for young readers, How Music Works, has sold internationally and been adopted by American primary school systems. He is also the author of two books of poetry, A Larger World Made for Gentleness (2021), and Light: poems (2023), also published by Mount Auburn Press. He lives in Watertown Massachusetts.