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.
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]
^Birns, Nicholas.『The Children of Húrin, Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin.』Tolkien Studies 5.1 (2008): 189-200.
^Birns, Nicholas. "The enigma of Radagast: revision, melodrama, and depth." Mythlore 26.1 (2007): 8.
^Birns, Nicholas. Birns, Nicholas (2011). "The Stones and the Book: Tolkien, Mesopotamia, and Biblical Mythopoeia". In Fisher, Jason (ed.). Tolkien and the Study of his Sources: Critical essays. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 45–68. ISBN978-0-7864-6482-1. OCLC731009810.
