Erin Aubry Kaplan (born January 6, 1962) is a Los Angeles journalist and columnist born in 1962^[2] who has written about black political, economic and cultural issues since 1992.^[3][4] She is a contributing writer to the op-ed section of the Los Angeles Times,^[5][6] and from 2005 to 2007 was a weekly op-ed columnist – the first black weekly op-ed columnist in the paper's recent history.^[7] She has been a staff writer and columnist for the LA Weekly^[8] and a regular contributor for many publications, including Salon.com,^[9] Essence,^[10][11][12] and Ms.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Kaplan is also a regular columnist for make/shift, a quarterly feminist magazine that launched in 2007^[17] and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.^[18]

Kaplan's essays have been anthologized in several books, including (as Erin Aubry) "Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood" (Villard, Washington Square Press),^[19] "Step Into A World" (Wiley & Sons)^[20] and "Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood" (Doubleday).^[21] The last book's contributors include Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks and Alice Walker, and won an American Book Award in 2005.^[22] She won the PEN USA 2001 award for journalism.^[23]

Kaplan has published two books. Her first book was a collection of essays and reportage titled Black Talk, Blue Thoughts and Walking the Color Line: Dispaches From a Black Journalista, and was published in 2011.^[24][25] Her second, I Heart Obama, an extended essay about the cultural and personal meaning of the first black American president, was published in 2016.^[26]

Kaplan was born and raised in Los Angeles, though her family is originally from New Orleans. She was married to Alan Kaplan, a Los Angeles high school history teacher, for 15 years. He died in 2015.^[27] Kaplan holds an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles, and teaches creative writing at Antioch University Los Angeles.^[4]

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