About the paper

A journal for adults who take love seriously.

Dyana is a small, unhurried publication about modern romance — dating with intention, staying curious over decades, and the small rituals that carry a life together. It is written by people who have loved and lost and are still, mostly, in favor of the project.

We publish one long essay a month, one short letter a week, and a slow collection of working guides. Everything is free. There is no algorithm and no ad on the page. If you have opinions about how we should write about love, we would like to hear them — see the contact card below.

An open notebook and coffee on a wooden desk

The editorial principles

A short list
Principle · I

The specific over the categorical.

We write about the small, concrete moments a relationship actually consists of, not the abstractions people trade at dinner parties. Nobody has ever been helped by another essay on love in the abstract.

Principle · II

Honest before flattering.

The most useful writing on love says the thing you were hoping someone would say and quietly did not want to hear. We try, hard, to be that.

Principle · III

Adults, not projects.

Our readers are grown people navigating actual lives. We don't do self-improvement drills, tests to take, or five-step programs. We do essays, letters, and the occasional working guide.

Principle · IV

Elegance is the shortest way through.

A good essay on love is short. Almost nothing that matters in this territory takes more than 1,500 words to say. When it does, we take the space. Otherwise we don't.

Some contributors

This season
Essays

Adele Marchetti

Writer in Milan. Contributes long essays on the years just before children and the long chapters after them. Author of Notes on a Quiet Love.

Practicum

Julien Petit

Writer and translator in Berlin. Handles most of the Practicum column. Has spent three of the last seven years living on a different continent to the person he loves.

Editor

Nora Ilyás

Editor of the paper. Formerly at a magazine you have heard of; now, mostly, a reader with strong opinions about second sentences.

In editorial partnership

Dear Jane, our sister project.

Dyana runs in editorial partnership with Dear Jane — a private community for adults who want more than what mainstream apps deliver. We occasionally cross-publish; we do not share subscriber data. If you enjoy Dyana and are looking for the kind of people we tend to write about, that's where you'll find them.

Visit Dear Jane
Write to the paper

We read every letter.

Pitches, corrections, disagreements, and unsolicited essays are all welcome. We tend to answer within a week.

editor@dyana.co