Nicholas Birns

@nicholasbirns.bsky.social

1.4K followers 2K following 670 posts

Academic, literary critic etc. teaching at NYU. Books from Cambridge UP, Bloomsbury, Broadview, Palgrave, U of South Carolina P, Sydney UP, Routledge. He/him

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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. .. more

Art 28%

Political science 22%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Nicholas Birns, Stuart White

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 13h

Rest in peace and power, Jesse Jackson.

Gift link:

Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader Who Sought the Presidency, Dies at 84

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 14h

RIP Jesse Jackson (Jacob Lawrence's portrait of Jesse Jackson, created in 1970 for cover of Time magazine, now in collection of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery) npg.si.edu/object/npg_N...

Painted, stylized portrait of Jesse Jackson

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Oeishik 🐸 @oeishik.bsky.social · 15h

Youtube link to full episode of Talarico's interview is not playable on X either. Works on here though. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ...

Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislatu…

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

www.youtube.com

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 1d

Late in winter

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 1d

Soviet clock

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Brymo @brymo.bsky.social · 1d

Pride of Madeira, top view
#flowers #photograhy #art

Looking down on a pride of Madeira flower

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 4d

southburnett.com.au/news2/2026/0... Award-Winning Poet Dies - southburnett.com.au very sad to hear about the passing of the Indigenous Australian poet, Lionel Fogarty

Award-Winning Poet Dies - southburnett.com.au

Award-winning poet, author, artist and First Nations activist Lionel Fogarty died on Thursday, aged 68.

southburnett.com.au

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 4d

Great

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 4d

I’m doing it next month.

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 5d

Forthcoming in a Cambridge anthology Los Angeles literature.

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 5d

scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftol... my review of Michael D. C. Drout’s The Ruin and the Tower ( Norton) for the Journal of Tolkien Research

The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation (2025) by Michael D.C. Drout

Book review, by Nicholas Birns, of The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation (2025) by Michael D.C. Drout

scholar.valpo.edu

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Toad Facts @toadfacts.bsky.social · 5d

Our friend the Apennine Yellow-bellied Toad lives in southern Italy! They only lay a few eggs at a time but are believed to breed several times a year! They also have heart-shaped pupils! A great toad for Valentine's Day! (photo by Giacomo Gola)

A toad sitting in shallow running water! They have very, very bumpy skin and a bright yellow-orange patch on their chin and belly!

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 5d

e.givesmart.com/events/MZ9/ in exactly 2 weeks, tickets still available

Celebrate the 250th

Help Saint Andrews Society of the State of New York spread the word about 250 Celebration of the US!

e.givesmart.com

Reposted by Nicholas Birns, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Nathan P. Kalmoe

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 5d

first time in new york since zohran took office and other than having to recite the shahada on arrival at laguardia nothing much has changed

Reposted by Patrick Dunleavy, Cathy N. Davidson, Nicholas Birns , and 11 more Patrick Dunleavy, Cathy N. Davidson, Nicholas Birns, David S. Cohen, Patricia Owens, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Jacob T. Levy, Michael D. McDonald, Joanna L. Grossman, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Susan D. Amussen, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dana Howard, Kristina McElheran

Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 5d

Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”

Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”

www.mediamatters.org

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 6d

Very sad loss of a major European writer.

Trouw @trouw.nl · 6d

Cees Nooteboom (1933-2026) overleden: een grensoverschrijdend schrijver, wars van calvinisme

Als iemand het reisverhaal salonfähig heeft gemaakt in Nederland, is het de gelauwerde schrijver Cees Nooteboom wel. Als westerse globetrotter met een elegante pen werd hij buiten Nederland meer gewaardeerd dan hier. Op woensdag overleed hij op 92-jarige leeftijd.

www.trouw.nl

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Trouw @trouw.nl · 6d

Cees Nooteboom (1933-2026) overleden: een grensoverschrijdend schrijver, wars van calvinisme

www.trouw.nl

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 10d

I emailed with him once, when he correctly pointed out that Uruguayan writers should’ve been included in my coedited book The Contemporary Spanish-American Novel, he was gentlemanly about it www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026...

Falleció Jorge Ruffinelli, figura clave de la crítica literaria latinoamericana

Académico, periodista y promotor cultural uruguayo, impulsó desde Xalapa el estudio de la literatura latinoamericana y convirtió a la Universidad Veracruzana en un referente continental.

www.jornada.com.mx

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 10d

BTW amplification and confirmation from anyone on here who has found gamingthepast.net useful would be so very greatly appreciated! Let's get the word out!

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 10d

Pappardelle bolognese at Triestina in Cranford NJ

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Sue Wilkes @suewilkesauthor.bsky.social · 10d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #romans

Finding personal Roman items in Carlisle a 'real connection'

Items from the Carlisle Cricket Club dig, including a diploma, are on display for the first time.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 11d

Spanish PM Sanchez: "Social media has become a failed state, and when democracies start to impose order, their owners get nervous. We will move forward despite their threats."

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 11d

From the booklet from my February 26 talk at the Fraunces Tavern museum on finding Scotland in the US Declaration of Independence

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Forest Archaic Collective @forestcollectiv.bsky.social · 11d

its #RuinedPrioryFriday & there's this curious quartet of monastic sites in a crescent around Shrewsbury which deserves a bit of a thread

🧵👇

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Pamela Delupio @pameladelupio.bsky.social · 11d

This first of my most anticipated books of 2026 written by a Filipino author has arrived 😍

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

#currentlyreading #booksky