What is Motions?

Motions is a monthly newsletter from me, Brian Thomas Burns, in which I’ll share the goings-on and passersby and whereabouts of my past 30something days. Think: a mostly chronological series of vignettes that capture where I went, who I was with, what I was thinking, and how I felt about it all. It’s a collage, it's a travelogue, it’s a checkbook, it’s musical notation. Fitting together, neatly or not, and one month at a time, life’s many strange pieces.

Why subscribe to Motions?

Subscribing is the simplest way to keep up with Motions. Emailed directly to your inbox, you’ll immediately get to read about the friends I tried to have fun with and the visitors who pissed me off, the texts I got from my mom and the conversations I overheard on the subway, and how it felt to hear Madonna say “Brian” from the stage at Madison Square Garden and watch a stranger on a park bench eat a half-gallon of vanilla ice cream using only the carton’s lid. (Read: religious, in both instances.)

Whether you opt for a paid subscription or not, I’m truly very grateful for your time spent reading my work. I repeat: my work.

And who is Brian Thomas Burns?

I’m a writer living in Brooklyn. I’ve been published in The New York Times. Previously, this was a monthly newsletter called Keep Out in which I shared an excerpt from one of the “private” diaries I’ve kept over the last 20 years (!), followed by an essay charting where that entry finds me today. Scroll down far enough and you’ll find them.

I write a lot about family and I write a lot about home.

I’m an Educator at The Tenement Museum. One day, I hope to make movies. I was born in New Jersey but grew up in New Hampshire.

Subscribe to Motions

My goings-on and passersby and whereabouts of the last 30something days, fitting together—neatly or not—life's many strange pieces.

People

A writer based in Brooklyn.