Harvard philosopher
AB cum laude in philosophy, with honors work on Kant, Nietzsche, virtue, passions, and freedom.
Author Bio
Jason W. Park writes as J.J. Park.
He brings a philosopher’s patience, a musician’s ear, and a Pittsburgh storyteller’s directness to fiction, memoir, essays, and conversations about the hard work of building a meaningful life.
Biography
A writer shaped by philosophy, music, recovery, and Pittsburgh roots
Jason Park was born in Lawrence, Kansas, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his AB cum laude in philosophy from Harvard University in 1997, where his senior honors thesis was titled Kant and Nietzsche on Virtue and the Passions: Thoughts on their Conceptions of Freedom.
He later earned his PhD in strategic management from the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. His dissertation, Riding the Wave: Distributional Properties and Process Explanations of Merger and Acquisition Waves, reflects the same curiosity about patterns, pressure, and human decision-making that now runs through his creative work.
Before publishing as J.J. Park, Jason performed twice at New York’s Carnegie Hall on solo piano, developed a lasting interest in the baroque keyboard suite, and worked as a disc jockey for WHRB 95.3 FM in metropolitan Boston, where jazz, house, techno, and jungle all found their way into his ear.
Today he writes fiction, memoir, letters, and essays through J.J. Magik Publishing, the imprint he co-founded with his feline sidekick Magik, Chief of Inspiration and occasional supervisor of deadlines.
Credibility
Trust signals without the fog machine
Pitt PhD
Doctorate in strategic management from the University of Pittsburgh, with research on merger and acquisition waves.
Carnegie Hall pianist
Twice performed solo piano at Carnegie Hall and keeps a serious interest in the baroque keyboard suite.
Radio-trained ear
Former WHRB 95.3 FM disc jockey with a taste for jazz and the energy of the 1990s rave scene.
Books
Start with the work
Waiting for Ten
A compact Los Angeles novella of tension, wit, and unexpected heart — built for readers who like pressure, personality, and a clean payoff.
Bliss + Blues = Bipolar
An honest, relatable, and sometimes funny memoir about bipolar disorder, recovery, ambition, and the refusal to let illness have the last word.
The Australian Wager
A true short story about risk, nerve, and the kind of bet that turns a passing moment into a memory.
Full Moon Chess
A Romanian-flavored short story where strategy, atmosphere, and moonlit tension meet across the chessboard.
Piano Your B.F.F.
A friendly, practical invitation to treat the piano less like a test and more like a lifelong companion.
Late Night Visit: A Boy's Girl
A brief late-night story about intimacy, surprise, and the emotional charge of an unexpected visit.
Speaking / interviews / book clubs
Conversations Jason is built for
Fiction, tension, and character
For readers of Waiting for Ten: compressed storytelling, dialogue, social pressure, humor, and the pleasure of a short literary form.
Mental health and resilience
For readers of Bliss + Blues = Bipolar: recovery, mood disorders, ambition, family, and speaking plainly about illness without flattening the person who lives with it.
Philosophy and the good life
Questions of virtue, freedom, discipline, beauty, music, and what it means to become the kind of person you can live with.
Connect
Invite Jason into the conversation
For interview requests, book-club conversations, speaking inquiries, or reader notes, use the speaking inquiry page. To stay current between releases, join the J.J. Magik newsletter or follow J.J. Magik Publishing on Substack for new essays and announcements.