diff --git a/cowrie/output/jsonlog.py b/cowrie/output/jsonlog.py
index 50d287b..0edff7b 100644
--- a/cowrie/output/jsonlog.py
+++ b/cowrie/output/jsonlog.py
@@ -32,7 +32,10 @@ Docstring
 
 import json
 import os
+import Queue
+import threading
 
+from twisted.python import log
 import twisted.python.logfile
 
 import cowrie.core.output
@@ -47,8 +50,21 @@ class Output(cowrie.core.output.Output):
         fn = cfg.get('output_jsonlog', 'logfile')
         dirs = os.path.dirname(fn)
         base = os.path.basename(fn)
+
+        # create the log queue with a default buffer size if none is specified in
+        # the log file.
+        buffer_size = 10000
+        if cfg.has_option('output_jsonlog', 'buffer_size'):
+            buffer_size = int(cfg.get('output_jsonlog', 'buffer_size'))
+        self._log_writer_queue = Queue.Queue(maxsize=buffer_size)
+
+        # allocate the output file
         self.outfile = twisted.python.logfile.DailyLogFile(base, dirs, defaultMode=0o664)
 
+        # start the log writer thread
+        self._log_writer_thread = threading.Thread(target=self._write_log)
+        self._log_writer_thread.daemon = True
+        self._log_writer_thread.start()
 
     def start(self):
         """
@@ -59,6 +75,7 @@ class Output(cowrie.core.output.Output):
     def stop(self):
         """
         """
+        self._log_queue.join()
         self.outfile.flush()
 
 
@@ -69,7 +86,26 @@ class Output(cowrie.core.output.Output):
             # Remove twisted 15 legacy keys
             if i.startswith('log_'):
                 del logentry[i]
-        json.dump(logentry, self.outfile)
-        self.outfile.write('\n')
-        self.outfile.flush()
+
+        # TODO: There's a possibility that the queue is full when we do this put, which means
+        # we'll lose the log item. We specifically use put_nowait so in that case it doesn't
+        # block the main writer thread.
+        try:
+            self._log_writer_queue.put_nowait(json.dumps(logentry))
+        except Queue.Full:
+            log.err('Could not queue jsonlog item. Consider increasing buffer_size in [output_jsonlog] of your cowrie configuration')
+
+    def _write_log(self):
+        # there's a probability of hitting IO errors while attempting to write
+        # for various reasons (for example, the disk is full). So, regardless
+        # of what happens during the write, we always mark the queue item as done
+        # so self.stop() can properly join on any remaining items.
+        while True:
+            item = self._log_writer_queue.get()
+            try:
+                self.outfile.write(item)
+                self.outfile.write('\n')
+                self.outfile.flush()
+            finally:
+                self._log_writer_queue.task_done()