Nicholas Birns
nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns
@nicholasbirns.bsky.social

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

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%
Catherine O’Hara didn’t steal scenes she just showed up and ownership automatically defaulted to her
Catherine O'Hara is as much of a "good in absolutely everything, no matter how good the thing itself was" actor as Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Kamala Harris warned everyone.

Hillary Clinton warned everyone.

I’ll never regret voting for them.

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

A flock of starlings doing their thing around the World War II Lookout Tower in Cape May.

Very honored to have a chapter (on ecology and worldbuilding) in this anthology.
Submitted today! Following a few years of rigorous peer-review and working with my co-editor @lukebshelton.bsky.social and many Tolkienists!
- 44 chapters
- 46 Tolkien scholars globally
- over 280K words overall
Still tons of work to do as proofs arrive, but feels like a moment to celebrate. ☺️

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Submitted today! Following a few years of rigorous peer-review and working with my co-editor @lukebshelton.bsky.social and many Tolkienists!
- 44 chapters
- 46 Tolkien scholars globally
- over 280K words overall
Still tons of work to do as proofs arrive, but feels like a moment to celebrate. ☺️

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

I absolutely love living in and helping to lead El Cerrito…

AND I will always love Oakland. My 15 years living there were some of my most formative years, and I still work there and appreciate the amazing community.

Was reminded of that on my way back from @lateefahsimon.bsky.social party tonight:
Tonight I watched Prime Minister Mark Carney take the actual Heated Rivalry Canada fleece from Hudson Williams, slip it on and say: “This is true soft power.”

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I have long enjoyed writing to my literary heroes. No more so than as a romantic book-mad 20year-old, pre library employment. Muriel Spark was quick to recommend the library as a source for her further reading faves to save me 'dipping into my dole'. How I treasure this letter #libraries

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Greylag goose (Anser anser)

#birds #photography
Just think about what would be happening in the US right now if Kamala had been elected.
“The shooting of Porter, who leaves behind daughters aged 10 and 20, was not caught on camera”

How convenient for ICE
Family of man killed by off-duty ICE agent in LA demands charges: ‘The ache will never go away’
After Renee Good’s killing in Minneapolis, calls grow for accountability in the shooting of Keith Porter Jr on New Year’s Eve
www.theguardian.com

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Tragic, unsettling news. Papalii Sia Figiel was a complicated genius, a groundbreaking storyteller of Oceania.

samoaglobalnews.com/papalii-sia-...
Papalii Sia Figiel Found Dead in her Cell at Tanumalala Prison - Samoa Global News
Papalii Sia Figiel, renowned Pacific novelist, poet and painter has died at Tanumalala prison while awaiting the result of her murder trial. Sources at the correctional facility say Papali was found d...
samoaglobalnews.com

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a January Cormorant chilling on its perch over a pond in mid Hampshire, England

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reading Elizabeth Miki Brina’s memoir “Speak, Okinawa” while the snow falls today

I’m about halfway through and damn, she really captures so many of my feelings about identity and she really knows how to make me cry when I think about my ancestors’ strength through all they have endured

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Breaking NYT:

The FBI agent who sought to investigate the federal immigration officer who fatally shot Renee Good has resigned from the bureau, according to two people familiar with the matter, after leadership pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the officer.
F.B.I. Agent Who Tried to Investigate ICE Officer in Shooting Resigns
www.nytimes.com

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Villa Farnesina Cubiculum B fresco depicting the Nymphs of Mount Nysa caring for the infant Dionysus.
The baby is shown being nursed or tended to by female figures in a lush setting. It is painted in a "Neo-Attic" or "lekythos" style, which mimics the look of 5th-c. BCE Greek pottery.
#FrescoFriday

Sadly, I wrote this review in July 2024 before Donna Coates, author of the book, and Brenda Walker, one of the writers she analyzed, passed away far too soon. Now, in January 2026, it has been published

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Doge, Tariffs, Immigration, Ballroom, Arc de Trump, Kennedy Center, Epstein files, Venezuela, Peace Board, Greenland . . . It’s not just Incitatus, it’s the whole stable.

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RIP Georges Borchardt: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/o...
Georges Borchardt, 97, Dies; Literary Agent Championed Wiesel’s ‘Night’
www.nytimes.com
“We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy… The powerful have their power. But we have something, too: the capacity to stop pretending.”

— Canadian PM Mark Carney at Davos, basically announcing divorce from America and receiving a standing ovation

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🇺🇦 Zelensky’s speech in Davos today, scheduled for 14:30, has now been canceled.

Due to the overnight shelling, he remained in Kyiv to hold meetings on the aftermath of the attack and mobilize the necessary resources to restore electricity, heat, and water.

From Good Housekeeping magazine in 1898 at the height of American imperialism, and with tons of jingoistic qualities, but mentions “world -wide shelter”, which means (esp. resonance of Emma Lazarus) giving shelter to the immigrant, so it’s a reasonably pluralistic vision.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul have basically mobilized into a war economy of mutual aid and non-violent defense. I’ve never seen anything like it, even during Covid. People who barely vote are guarding their schools from ICE and doing the shopping for neighbors in hiding.
This is so smart. I’m so impressed with all the different ways you’re helping your neighbors.

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A Figure of a Servant Woman peeling an Apple, Dutch, c. 1650-1675, Oil on wood, 1187 x 768 mm (West Hall, Dyrham Park, Bath). Dummy boards were illusionistic cut-out figures that often represented the inhabitants of the home, used as chimney boards, fire screens, or just for fun.

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Fairchild's quote on McCarthy is worth remembering today:

"When we destroy a man's character, we take away from his dignity of soul. We take from him something that money cannot buy, something which may never be regained. When we stop and examine this spectacle, it revolts us."

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Hate a football game where the real winners are the zebras.

🚫🦓🚫🦓🚫🦓🚫🦓🚫🦓🚫🦓🚫🦓🚫

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A father’s love has no boundaries❤️

russia has brought so much pain to Ukrainian families, but it can’t destroy their jovial spirits.