''The American Voice'' was an American periodical from Louisville, Kentucky. The journal published poetry, short stories, and essays.

Background and content

''The American Voice'' was founded by Frederick Smock and

Sallie Bingham Sallie Bingham (born January 22, 1937) is an American author, playwright, poet, teacher, feminist activist, and philanthropist. She is the eldest daughter of Barry Bingham, Sr., patriarch of the Bingham family of Louisville, Kentucky. Sallie ...

while they were both part-time teachers at the University of Louisville. When the two started discussing making a literary journal, they initially thought of naming it "Other Voices," to represent the Latin Americans, regionalists, women, and other minority writers they liked. When their friend Frank MacShane suggested they locate the journal more centrally by calling it "The American Voice," Smock and Bingham adopted the title immediately. The journal has been described as feminist in orientation as it highlights the work of women and marginalized writers in general. Contributors come from the U.S., Canada and Latin America. They featured well-known and obscure writers alike. Some of the well-known writers ''The American Voice'' published include:

Marge Piercy Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist and writer. Her work includes ''Woman on the Edge of Time''; ''He, She and It'', which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a New York Times Best ...

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ' ...

Jorge Louis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

Elaine Equi Elaine Equi (born 1953) is an American poet. Equi was born in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up in the Chicago area. Since 1988 she has lived in New York City with her husband, poet Jerome Sala. She currently teaches creative writing in the Master ...

Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...

Fenton Johnson John Fenton Johnson is an American writer and professor of English and LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona. Life He was born ninth of nine children into a Kentucky whiskey-making family with a strong storytelling tradition. In February ...

Kay Boyle Kay Boyle (February 19, 1902 – December 27, 1992) was an American novelist, short story writer, educator, and political activist. She was a Guggenheim Fellow and O. Henry Award winner. Early years The granddaughter of a publisher, Boyle was ...

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

Reynolds Price Edward Reynolds Price (February 1, 1933 – January 20, 2011) was an American poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist and James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price had a lifelong interest in Biblical ...

Anne Firor Scott Anne Firor Scott (April 24, 1921 – February 5, 2019) was an American historian, specializing in the history of women and of the South. Early life and education Scott was born April 24, 1921, in Montezuma, Georgia. In 1941 she graduated summa cu ...

Jo Carson Josephine Catron Carson (October 9, 1946 – September 19, 2011) was an American playwright, poet, fiction writer, and actor, as well as the author of three children's books. Her best-known play is ''Daytrips'' (1991), and her poetry is collecte ...

Doris Grumbach Doris M. Grumbach ('' née'' Isaac; July 12, 1918 – November 4, 2022) was an American novelist, memoirist, biographer, literary critic, and essayist. She taught at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and ...

Paula Gunn Allen Paula Gunn Allen (October 24, 1939 – May 29, 2008) was a Native American poet, literary critic, activist, professor, and novelist. Of mixed-race European-American, Native American, and Arab-American descent, she identified with her mother's p ...

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

Minnie Bruce Pratt Minnie Bruce Pratt (born September 12, 1946) is an American poet, educator, activist and essayist. She retired in 2015 from her position as Professor of Writing and Women's Studies at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York where she was invite ...

, and

Joy Harjo Joy Harjo ( ; born May 9, 1951) is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetr ...

. The founding editors' primary goal was to promote marginalized writers who could not publish through literary establishments—especially those who were denied access to mainstream journals."Description." ''The University Press of Kentucky'' https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813109565/the-american-voice-anthology-of-poetry/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Voice, The Defunct mass media in Louisville, Kentucky Defunct literary magazines published in the United States 1985 establishments in Kentucky 1999 disestablishments in Kentucky