In 1985, Austin Peay State University English professors David Till and Malcolm Glass shared an ambitious dream. They wanted to create one of the south’s pre-eminent poetry journals, publishing only works of high artistic merit.
They settled on the name “Zone 3” for their new magazine, in reference to the temperate zone that encompasses Clarksville, and the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts agreed to publish a few issues. It was a risky venture. Thousands of literary journals are founded each year, only to fold because of small readerships and financial constraints.
Twenty-five years later, even though Till and Glass have retired from APSU, the poetry journal they helped found has grown into a leading voice in the nation’s network of literary magazines. Zone 3 expanded into publishing short stories in the 1990s, and it recently added interviews with some of America’s finest prose writers, such as Michael Martone, Brenda Miller and Ander Monson.
On April 28, former editors and contributors along with the current editorial staff of Zone 3 came together at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library for “Terra Firma,” an reading commemorated the journal’s 25th anniversary. The event was sponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission, the CMC Library and the Center of Excellence for the Creative Art.
David Till, Malcolm Glass, Blas Falconer, Barry Kitterman Amy Wright, Phyllis Gobbell and Jeff Hardin read during the event.
