Dr. Samantha Landau📚

@broomsticknpen

お化け博士 (Ghost Scholar) based in Tokyo. Gothic in Asia Association co-founder. Variously juggling research on: Emily Dickinson, Shirley Jackson, Jewish folklore, Japanese gothic/folklore, poetry & the gothic. Poet and opera singer. (Opinions mine)

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir broomsticknpen.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· 29d

As if to elucidate my point, the monsters of summer have arrived😂

Cardboard boxes painted to look like monsters with cut out open mouths of various sizes and shapes are stacked up in front of a large green bush.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jul 7

Thank you so much to @soflopojo for publishing my poem “If even the stars - “ in their May 2026 Issue (Issue 41). I’m sharing it today as 7/7 marks Tanabata (star festival) in Tokyo and I wrote this poem last year about Tanabata🎋✨

“If even the stars – ”

『七夕や　野にもねがひの　糸すすき』
(たなばたやのにもねがひのいとすすき)
小林一茶
It’s Tanabata
Like strings of wishes in the fields
The pampas grass sways
–Kobayashi Issa (trans. mine)

Orihime fears summer again
Each year she can’t find Hikoboshi
Who too lays hidden, wandering
Behind thick haze, brilliant city lights
She can’t find soft grasses here -

Concrete doesn’t swing gently. It bakes hot,
Merciless. Wind chimes’ blue voices lost,
Adrift, unmoored in cacophony of cicadas sirens
Downtown traffic chattering commuters
Too busy to stop for stars,
Too busy for prayers.

But in certain corners sweating
Lines of penitents still gaze upward,
Tie their colorful wishes to bamboo stems,
Wait patiently for heavenly signs -

Orihime fears summer again
Each year she can’t find Hikoboshi
Who too lays hidden, wandering
Behind thick haze, brilliant city lights
She can’t find soft grasses here -

Concrete doesn’t swing gently. It bakes hot,
Merciless. Wind chimes’ blue voices lost,
Adrift, unmoored in cacophony of cicadas sirens
Downtown traffic chattering commuters
Too busy to stop for stars,
Too busy for prayers.

But in certain corners sweating
Lines of penitents still gaze upward,
Tie their colorful wishes to bamboo stems,
Wait patiently for heavenly signs -
May the clouds swiftly part,
May the lovers finally meet.

I have my doubts. If even the stars
Cannot overcome, what chance for bravery
Have I?

Samantha Landau is an academic, classical vocalist, translator, and writer who resides in Tokyo, Japan, where she has lived for over two decades. She works as a professor at The University of Tokyo and is a co-founder of the Gothic in Asia Association. She is currently co-editing a volume of academic essays on Poetry and the Gothic. Her poems have appeared in Tiny Spoon Lit Mag, Judith Magazine, and Dust Poetry Magazine, among others.

Picture of the fronts piece for South Florida Poetry Journal Issue 41, May 2026. It has a quote from Lawrence Bridges on the side that reads “but they can grab you off the street, even for this.” The font is lightly cursive and SoFloPoJo is in red text while the rest of the letters are black.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jul 2

Strawberry moon🌕

A pink moon rises over a pond. The moon is reflected in the surface of the pond, above the reflection of trees.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· May 3

I don’t come here nearly often enough 🍀

A photo of blue sky with white wispy clouds, distant green trees, and grass interspersed with mock strawberries and white clover in the foreground.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Apr 10

Thank you SO much to The Lullwater Review for publishing my poem, “Not the End of the World” in their 33rd issue. This poem was written for my mother🥹❤️ Congratulations to the editors and staff on a beautiful issue. emorylullwaterreview.com

Not the End of the World
Samantha Landau

My mother isn’t one of those who buy for the apocalypse
when a storm comes. We trekked
to two Acmes and the Pathmark
ahead of the 1992 Nor'easter,
to find one lone plastic half-gallon of 1% milk,
a solitary bag of Golden Delicious apples,
but there wasn’t any toilet paper.
Bare shelves all down the aisle.
Canned chickpeas gone and boxed cereal shelves empty,
she grabbed the last loaf of whole wheat.
And when I whined for Lucky Charms she said,
“It’s enough to be at the store,
bad weather coming.”
I knew not to make trouble.
Her shopping list was comprehensive,
her survival instinct refined.
She grew up in the same house as her
Great Aunt who escaped marauding Cossacks
And later, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. To
What are snowflakes, compared to exile and conflagration?
Vagaries of volatile weather might end the world
but like my mother, list in hand,
I’ll probably go to ten stores looking for toilet paper,
unruffled by the approaching storm.

Screencap of the 33rd issue of Lullwater Review digital release.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 21

As yet, as ever🌸

Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms against a blue sky.

Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms on a large tree against a grey sky and grass.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Aug 12

Oh yeah.

A row of DC row homes with a red brick sidewalk, shrubs, and tall trees lining the street. The sky is blue with a few clouds.

4 brown archival boxes at the Library of Congress on a library cart with scanners and computer screens behind.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Aug 7

I send you my door in summer.

On the left, a sign made of fake drift wood with two sea stars reads “relax you’re at the beach” and on the right, two wooden flip flops with twisted metal for the thongs. Both are pale blue. The lettering is ivory.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jul 12

Seeing this photo make rounds as a “Shinto Kami.” No. This is a photo of two Jizo-sama from Tenryuji in Arashiyama, Kyoto. They’re definitely Buddhist, not Shinto. Due to Haibutsu Kishaku and local practices, a fair few of these roadside protectors were (semi) Shinto-ized, but this one was NOT.

A photo of two Jizo-sama from Tenryuji in Arashiyama, Kyoto. The one on left is bald and has long Buddha-like earlobes, signaling his Boddhisatva stage. They both wear the robes of Buddhist monks.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 27

Shabbat shalom, my friend!!

A beautiful poppyseed challah on a grey-beige plate next to two tea lights (Shabbat candles) on a small piece of grey agate.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 25

Wild clouds today.

A cumulonimbus cloud rises above a small house with a blue sky behind and telephone wires to the left.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 22

She was beautiful!

Sunset over Tokyo towards Mt Takao, with the sky reflecting pale cream, orange, and grey

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 22

Very “I’d like to rain soon” sky👀

Sunset with glowing orange and white clouds

Mt Fuji sits pale among the foothills as the Chuo Line goes by

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 21

Thanks so much to my fellow presenters Gerard Holmes and Thomas Leonard D. Shaw, and to everyone who came to our panel on Dickinson and Spiritualist Ecologies at the Emily Dickinson International Society conference in Taipei☺️ Will continue developing this lecture for publication😎👻

Lecture slide with a green brocade background and a picture of Emily Dickinson on the right surrounded by a gold frame. On the left, the presentation title “‘I’m knocking—everywhere—‘: Rapping Spirits and Liminal Spaces in Dickinson’s Poems” with speaker title Samantha Landau, Ph.D., Project Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 8

Thank you so much to Tiny Spoon lit mag for giving my poem “Tkhines” a home in their 13th issue, “Superstition/Divination”🥹❤️ This issue is so gorgeous and there are so many other very cool poems in it, I highly recommend getting a copy: tinyspoon.org/product/issu...

“Tkhines”
(For Florence Klein)

In the Old Days, my grandmother said,
Matriarchs had remedies for plague and dybbuk,
For redeeming a sick person’s soul.
The men’s siddur was not for us, she said.
She put her faith in women’s arts. Tkhines.
Supplications that bound community
Living to the living to the dead. Women wove ritual
Fought darkness and blight with song and thread.
Ba’al shem came alone and alone went working wonders
Through the Ineffable Name. But women,
Their voices held together a superpower.

See in this photo how our foremothers walk, she said,
Right to left, two threads among three women
Cemetery grass in their cold fists, inside the fence
Measuring the graves by cotton string.
String for wicks to make bright candles for the dead.
Singing supplications to the lonely underground,
far di gezinte, far di toyte.
Linked arm in arm, weaving their prayer.
Her modern ritual mirrored theirs, Yahrzeit candles
for each departed relative making neat rows in the kitchen sink.

Seven years since my grandmother’s death I have still
A red bindle near my bed, a dish of salt in my kitchen.
I take her advice: always close your books after reading.
On holidays, leave jam for the demons, a sweet distraction.
Touch the mezuzah as you enter the home,
Then kiss your fingers, bring holiness to your breath.
It’s Elul again. Early autumn. I think of the women measuring.
Is her ghost among them, singing soft?
For the living, for the dead.

Cover of Tiny Spoon issue 13, “Superstition/Divination”

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Jun 1

I’m out here pretending I’m not in Tokyo☕️Infinitely better than Starbucks😌

A pistachio and raspberry cookie is wrapped in a paper that says “Ralph’s coffee” on it, on a white plate with a green line along the edge. Next to it sits a NYC diner style mug with a Ralph’s coffee design, fake white roses in a small silver vase, sugar sticks in a silver box, and a milk creamer. In the background are green tables with green and white patterned rattan chairs and a beige brick wall with ivy growing along it.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· May 8

Tiny Spoon Lit Mag launch party for issue 13, “Superstition/Divination!!! My poem “Tkhines” is in this issue✨ I’ve seen the draft and all the poems are wonderful🥹 Really proud to be included🥹 Preorder here: tinyspoon.org/subscriptions/

Tiny Spoon Issue 13 “Superstition/Divination”

May 31st
7 - 9 pm
Release Party
Tiny Spoon Literary Magazine
Live Poetry
Snacks and Refreshments
$5 suggested donation
(If not, no worries)

4550 Broadway
Ste C-382
Boulder Co 80304
info@eastwindow.org

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· May 5

A little day trip to Shonan, but with Côté D’Azur vibes🏝️⛵️ Was watching the Keio sailing team (?) practice at one point today. Fun!

A steak with pepper sauce sits on a white plate next to a halved mini potato and a grilled quarter of an onion. In the background, a cup of coffee, glass of water, small roll on a white plate, are visible, and beyond, the ocean.

Small waves roll up to the beach. The sky is a clear blue and on the waves further out, the small sails of windsurfers are visible.

I want to start this description with “palm trees fingered the sky” but I don’t think anyone will get the reference…. Anyway, tall palm trees reach towards a blue twilight sky.

Waves roll up to shore at night, with the shoreline lit up and twinkling colorfully.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Apr 25

It rained and the Yaezakura are almost finished🥺 Oh but the pink it’s gorgeous….

Pink cherry blossom petals line a walkway in a park. The bottom half of the photo focuses on the petals and the top on the green canopy (slightly out of focus).

From another angle, the pink cherry blossom petals line a walkway in a park. The bottom half of the photo focuses on the petals and the top on the green canopy (slightly out of focus). This one has more petals in it.

A park bench with mounds of petals around it and damp fallen flowers on it.

A mountain of damp, fallen pink cherry blossom petals and flowers.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Apr 11

The theft and destruction of our green spaces continues unabated in Tokyo. They’re removing these and many other trees that are nearly a century old for some ridiculous cement project we do not need. @japanintercult.bsky.social

A fence encloses decades-old trees marked for removal at a park in suburban Tokyo.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 19

The Morgan’s original library area is amazing. We spent a lot of time wandering around reading book titles. They also have lots of displays of medieval and ancient art. Well worth the trip.

View of The Morgan Library’s reading room.

View of The Morgan Library’s reading room, focused on the ceiling.

A signed manuscript from Puccini’s La Bohème.

An ancient Mesopotamian stamp:
“Lion-armed demon with human torso and legs. Two scorpions, small seated figure, and crossed lions.”
Ca. 2750-2600 BCE.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 19

After the meal we visited the Kafka exhibit at the Morgan library. Simply incredible to see his notebooks, letters, and drafts, but also to learn more about his life and writing in-context. Was very pleased to see Nabokov mentioned re: insects and “The Metamorphosis”!

“Ein Käfig ging einen Vogel suchen.” (A cage went in search of a bird.)

A page from Kafka’s letters in Hebrew to his tutor.

Drawings from Kafka and the Doll by Rebecca Green.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 19

Went to Dagon on the Upper West Side for lunch today with a friend. Gorgeous gorgeous food, not too expensive, has nice outdoor seating (with heaters!). The kubaneh was SO good🤤

A two-tier stand with an oblong spiced lavash bread on the top tier and three mezze on the bottom (horseradish yogurt with roasted beets and crispy chickpeas, matbucha, and roasted eggplant with garlic and tahini). Behind the stand, part of a loaf of kubaneh is visible).

View of the menu and outdoor seating at Dagon, with a yellow cab driving by on the street beyond.

A loaf of swirled za’atar and feta kubaneh sits on a wooden tray.

Israeli salad with roasted lemon, crispy sesame chicken schnitzel, and an ample bowl of French fries, with yogurt sauce and ketchup on the side.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 9

Did anyone else in Tokyo see a patch of bright colorful lights in the sky, accompanied by small pulsating white lights? The colorful lights looked kind of like a lunar rainbow but they weren’t shaped like one, and when the clouds passed, nothing was visible in the sky….

Colorful lights (two pink, one purple, one green, and one blue) appear against the clouds, with some tree branches to the left and right. They seem to be reflecting on the edge of the clouds.

Colorful lights (two pink, one purple, one long green streak that melds into blue) appear against the clouds, with some tree branches to the right and the top of a building to the left. The moon shines through the clouds in the upper left corner.

Zoomed in version: Colorful lights (two pink, one purple, one green, and one blue mixed with yellow) appear against the clouds, with some tree branches to the right.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 8

Yesterday I went skiing for the first time since early 2020 (pre-Diamond Princess). Just for the day. Took all precautions, including masking on the gondola & at the onsen. It worked out ok. Will definitely go again next season☃️ I think I brought the snow with me. It’s snowing here today too❄️

Woman (me!) standing in skis on a ski slops against a backdrop of a cloudy sky with blue patches and a snowy valley with small mountains visible in the background. Wearing a two-tone navy and royal blue Patagonia ski jacket with black ski pants, orange skis and black boots, black poles, a white helmet, a light blue gaiter and orange goggles on, porting a light blue backpack.

Small colorful ski rental shops like the side of a snowy ski slope. Several brightly clad skiers and boarders are visible, carrying their equipment toward the parking lot. It’s snowing and the sky is grey. Some snow flakes are visible in the photo.

A glistening, curving street in Echigo Yuzawa, lined by large snowy embankments and houses with huge amounts of snow piled on their roofs. It’s snowing and the snow makes the yellow light of the street lamps softer. Between the lamp posts run electric cables, which are also piled with snow. In the road, at a distance, walks the dark figure of a woman with a white umbrella.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 6

I don’t think we have to agree, but I think quietness isn’t passivity in this case. She’s made a lot of very clear public remarks, on video and in print, and provided far more support than I’ve seen other reps do. This is her newsletter from Feb 20, as an example.

Dear neighbor,

Since January 20, President Donald Trump and advisors like Elon Musk have taken aggressive, sweeping steps to undermine the rule of law and take illegal actions that harm Americans. These acts include attacks on the federal workforce, attempts to shut down congressionally authorized agencies, allowing unelected billionaires and tech bros to invade sensitive personal financial and national security data, and unconstitutional executive orders to claw back Americans’ rights. These attacks will harm children, families, immigrants, and all Americans who count on Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, and other critical federal services.

I want to be very clear: I am committed to using every tool at my disposal to fight these actions and protect Americans. To that end, my team has compiled a list of resources for families needing assistance with their federal employment, immigration, veterans and military issues, or other federal matters. We’ll keep this page updated as we learn new information.

Please note that under House Ethics guidance, we are only permitted to share information from government sources—not private sector or nonprofit resources, even though there are excellent resources available in those domains as well. As you navigate this challenging time in federal employment, you may wish to contact your union or HR representatives for more information.

If you are a government employee with information related to the politicization of the federal workforce, the firing of civil servants, and waste, fraud, or abuse of taxpayer dollars, you may reach out anonymously to the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

As always, please do not hesitate to call one of our offices if you have any questions or would like to share a concern. My team and I also stand ready to assist those affected by providing as much information as we can during this time. You can reach us by phone at 610-626-2020 or send me a message through our website.

Sincerely,

Mary Gay

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Mar 2

Well I guess it’s spring?

Kawazu cherry blossoms, with a bee-mimic fly sipping nectar.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Feb 24

Age yourself with a movie you saw in the theater. This was far from my first film, but it was the first time I saw a movie at a theater that had turned the sound on too loud. I had to leave the theater and didn't finish seeing the film 'til years later.

Kirk and and Spock go climbing at Yosemite National Park in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Feb 21

Continues to be “these difficult times” except now we’re deeply into some “dystopian weird fiction how is this not a rejected Hollywood script” times. Thankful for challah. Tried a new recipe today and hope it’s good. Shabbat shalom.

Three loaves of home-baked poppyseed challah.

Dr. Samantha Landau📚@broomsticknpen· Feb 20

I……. Cannot. Please why doesn’t anyone stop them.