Alvin Aubert

Alvin Bernard Aubert (March 1930 – January 7, 2014) was a professor of English, poet, playwright, editor, literary critic, and scholar who championed African-American culture and rural life along the southern Mississippi River. He grew up in Lutcher, Louisiana, and attended Southern University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois. He taught at Southern University, SUNY Fredonia,University of Oregon, and Wayne State University. At WSU he was a professor of English, taught creative writing and Afro-American literature, while serving as Interim Chair of the Department of Africana Studies. He founded and edited the award winning journal Obsidian, now Obsidian II, for publishing works in English by, and about, writes of African descent worldwide. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in literature (1955), and a Bread Loaf Scholar in poetry (1968). His poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including regular reviews of Afro-American poetry books in Cornell University's "Epoch" magazine. His play, "Home From Harlem," was staged at WSU's Bonstelle Theatre in 1986, and in 1991 he completed his play, "Piney Brown." He served as an advisory editor to literary magazines and served on grants panels for New York's Creative Artist Public Service Program (CAPS), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Coordinating Council for Literary Magazines (CCLM), the Kentucky Arts Council, and the Detroit City Arts Council. He was a member of the College Language Association, the Black Theatre Network, and the Langston Hughes Society.

He died on January 7, 2014, in Trenton, New Jersey. An extensive collection of his personal correspondence, journals, manuscripts, awards, and publications is housed at the Xavier University of Louisiana, Archives & Special Collections.

Early years and education

Aubert was born on March 12, 1930, in Lutcher, Louisiana. He attended Southern University in Baton Rouge and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature and a minor in French in 1959. Blyden Jackson, the chair of the English department, pushed him to think about graduate school and a career in teaching when he was still an undergrad. He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where the following year he earned a master's degree in English literature. Auberts work is often reflected of his childhood and where he is from.

Teaching career

Aubert first taught at Southern University in Baton Rouge. He started as an instructor from 1960 to 1962 then became an assistant professor for the next three years. From 1965 to 1970 he was an associate professor of English. 1970 was his last year at Southern University, he left and went to be associate professor at State University of New York College at Fredonia for four years and then he got promoted to be the professor of English. In 1975 Aubert founded Obsidian which is Black Literature under review. He originally funded it on his own but the a few other individuals liked the idea so they contributed as well. Aubert went to Wayne State University in Detroit, MI in 1980 and he stayed there for 8 years. During his years there he was a member of board of directors of the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines.

Honors

Aubert's honors included two creative writing fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1973, 1981), an editors fellowship grant in 1979 from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines for small press editing and publishing, the 1988 Callaloo Award for his contribution to Afro-American cultural expression, and the Xavier Activist for the Humanities Award.

Works

• Against the Blues (1972)
• Feeling Through (1975)
• A Noisesome Music (1979)
• South Louisiana: New and Selected Poems (1985)
• If Winter Come: Collected Poems 1967–1992 (1994)
• Harlem Wrestler and Other Poems (1995)