Nicholas Birns is a scholar of literature, including fantasy and Australian literature. As a Tolkien scholar he has written on a variety of topics including "The Scouring of the Shire" and Tolkien's biblical sources. His analysis of the writings of Anthony Powell and Roberto Bolaño has been admired by scholars.

Nicholas Birns took his BA at Columbia University in 1988.^[1][2] He took his MA at New York University in 1990, and he completed his PhD in 1992, also at New York University.^[1]

Birns was a visiting professor at Western Connecticut State University from 1992 to 1993.^[1] He was a professor at the New School from 1995 to 2014.^[1] He joined Eugene Lang College in 2005, teaching many different courses in literature.^[1] He taught at the College of New Rochelle from 2012.^[1] He is an adjunct instructor at the New York University School of Professional Studies.^[3]

He is the editor of Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/NZ Literature.^[4] He is a noted Tolkien scholar, having written on topics including "The Scouring of the Shire",^[5] The Children of Hurin,^[6] the wizard Radagast,^[7] and Tolkien's biblical sources.^[8]

The scholar of English literature Christine Berberich, reviewing Birns's Understanding Anthony Powell for Modernism/modernity, described it as "a labor of love" and "a laudable task" undertaken with a "thorough knowledge of the subject matter", though she regretted the lack of discussion of the "influence of fascism on the British upper classes" in the 1930s, and of the holocaust, whereas the lesser-known Katyn massacre was covered in detail.^[9]

The scholar of Spanish and Latin American literature Eduardo Gonzalez wrote that Roberto Bolaño as World Literature was "the best Bolaño critical ensemble since Bolaño Salvaje (2006)" and had an "exemplary introduction".^[10]

The author and scholar of Australian literature Jean-Francois Vernay wrote of Birns's Contemporary Australian literature: A world not yet dead that it discussed the writings of Australian authors "within the wider international context, and in terms of the history of ideas". In his view, Birns "manages to think outside the box by applying tenets of neoliberalism to Australian literary studies and one learns much from this book, not least from its valuable discussions of the American reception of Australian fiction."^[11]