About Us

Founded in 1986, Zone 3 is a literary journal published twice a year by the Center for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University. We welcome unsolicited submissions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. To ensure timely responses to your work, we will no longer be accepting submissions year-round. Our new reading period is from August 1st to April 30th. Past contributors to Zone 3 include Michael Burkard, George Scarbrough, Daniel Tobin, Kate Northrop, Vanessa Hemingway, Nancy Eimers, Melody S. Gee, Michael Martone, George Looney, Mary Ann Samyn, Kate Gleason, Joe Hall, and Christina Mengert. News about recent contributors is available here.

Zone 3 Press sponsors two book competitions: the Zone 3 First Book Award in Poetry and the Zone 3 Creative Nonfiction Book Award. For contest guidelines, click here.


The Zone 3/Center for the Creative Arts Visiting Writers Series brings distinguished writers to the Austin Peay campus each year for readings and short residencies. Information about the reading series is available here.