Diana Dinerman

When I moved to Los Angeles from the East Coast, my life was in transition. I had been working on a dissertation about the cultural history of Los Angeles and decided to leave academia to write for television. And I had recently ended a long-term relationship. With few friends and a new career here, I was looking for social connection.

Online dating was a great introduction to Southern California. Within a month, I was living in Echo Park and going on four dates a week. It didn’t take long fo...

RIP Mary Oliver
Diana Dinerman
Jan 17
When I heard the news, I felt the swell. The swell before the tears. The space in my chest that fills with a question. Does it hurt enough?
And then they came.
A friend has died.
I remember when I found you. I was 22.
I was visiting Winston-Salem, North Carolina and I bought a book of poems.
I saw myself inside them, like a still lake: reflective.
When I was 23, I gave your book to someone I loved. I told him it was important to me and not to lose it.
He ...

I never have trouble finding a subletter because someone in LA is always in the middle of a divorce. This is the third wayward dude I’ve had living in my apartment.
When I travel, I like to assimilate quickly so I follow the South American tradition of: Stand in line ’til nothing happens.
I sat across from the tensest couple in the world on the plane. They were wearing travel clothes. You know those clothes that look like a cut up parachute sewn back together? The husband was anxious. He...

Birthday Poems
Birthday Poem #1
I drank coffee in bed like a Rockefeller.
I received two packages of sweater bags from Amazon so that I can protect my clothes from the damn moths that are eating through everything.
I decided not to wear to deodorant. Everyone deserves a day off.
I talked to my grandmother who told me that old men are strange. “You think young men are strange, just wait….”
I withdrew a credit card dispute.
A friend sang the black version of Happy Birthday, which is the only ve...

RIP Greg Allman
The first time I heard “Melissa” was on a mix tape from my high school boyfriend.
We snuck away to the Outer Banks in my parents’ Volvo. We were 16 and 17.
We listened to the cassette tape as we drove down a beach road to the water.
We had nothing to do for those two days. We made no plans.
We slept on the beach and in the car.
It was uncomfortable.
We were so in love it didn’t matter.
He taught me things.
He gave me music.
He told me I was funny.
He saw things in me that no o...

RIP Sam Shepard
In college, I was very serious about theater.
I remember reading Sam Shepard plays and not being able to get inside them. I couldn’t find the door.
I couldn’t get ahold of his voice. It was so masculine, so rooted in earth and the West. It was in the dust and the dirt and I was looking above my head. That’s where eloquence lived. Or, so I thought. Now I think I was looking to get away from the most human parts of myself.
At that time in my life I was very far away from what th...

by Diana Dinerman (@ddinerman)
Months ago I saw a dress I loved. I thought about it for a while before I bought it, as I always do. Sometimes I’ll put things in my online shopping cart and if I forget about them, I don’t really want them. But I never forgot about this one. I finally ordered it last week. I received it by UPS today. A black man handed my package to me and asked me how I was. I said ok and thanked him.
I took the dress out of the garment bag. It’s a perfect silhouette and fabri...