Jason M. Thornberry

Jason M. Thornberry’s writing appears in JMWW, Letters Journal, North Dakota Quarterly, Harbor Review, Apricity, TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, Bicoastal Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Coachella Review, and many others. He teaches creative nonfiction at Seattle Pacific University. Jason was nominated in 2023 and 2024 for Best of the Net.

Jason survived a traumatic brain injury—a largely invisible disability that derailed his musical career. He played the drums for a dozen years, and his band, The Pressure, awaited the release of their debut album, Things Move Fast, so they could begin touring. One evening, a pair of strangers curb-stomped Jason into a coma, leaving him for dead. Things Move Fast was released the following day.

When Jason awoke, he could neither walk nor speak. He spent four months in hospital and a year in a wheelchair, developing post-traumatic epilepsy. Jason made sense of his injury and the sudden change in his life by writing about it: he documented a dozen years spent playing hundreds of concerts, performing alongside everyone from No Doubt to Eminem. His memoir and a novel are both under consideration. He’s hard at work on a new novel.

Jason earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University. He returned to work and teach writing at Seattle Pacific University. Born and raised in San Bernardino, California, Jason lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and dog.