A Mobius Path

In her first chapbook, professional saxophonist and composer Jean Fineberg explores her coming of age, breakups, the adoption of her daughter and the death of her mother. Struggling with her daughter's PTSD and traumatic early childhood, Fineberg recounts her weathering of the brunt of her child's anger, presented in a brutal, yet soulfull manner. The book takes the reader through her professional dancer mother's slow slide into dementia, and the discovery of her mother's legacy via films and Broadway programs. Sprinkled throughout the manuscript are the author's political and environmental observations, and her struggle with the grip of Imposter Syndrome. Also offered are a sonnet ode to her ballpoint pen and a found poem by her aunt, a painter and poetry editor who suffered from schizophrenia. Fineberg writes in formal structures such as Fibonacci poems and Elizabethan sonnets, as well as in blank verse, enhancing the emotional force of her words. Thoroughly intelligent and witty, the book sweeps the reader through a panoply of styles, topics and experiences, ending with a satirical take on the corruption of the English language.

Jean Fineberg is a professional jazz saxophonist and composer with an M.Ed. degree from Penn State University. She has studied with celebrated poet Kim Addonizio, and her poems have been published in more than 20 journals. She has received grants and fellowships from the NEA, Chamber Music America, The Doris Duke Foundation, IntermusicSF, ASCAP, Meet the Composer and others, and served as artist-in-residence at nine art centers around the USA. She is currently at work on her second chapbook, tentatively titled Memoirs of a Mean Sax.