A generalized inverse seesaw model, in which the 9x9 neutrino mass matrix has vanishing (1,1) and (1,3) submatrices, is proposed. This is similar to the universal two-zero texture which gives vanishing (1,1) and (1,3) elements of the 3x3 mass matrices in both the charged lepton and neutrino sectors. We consider the Z_6 x Z_6 group to realize such texture zeros. We study this generalized inverse seesaw model systematically and derive the seesaw formula for the 3x3 mass matrix of three active neutrinos. We also analyze the universal two-zero texture in the general case and propose two ansatze to reduce the number of free parameters. Taking account of the new result of theta_{13} from the Daya Bay experiment, we constrain the parameter space of the universal two-zero texture in the general case and in the two ansatze, respectively. We find that one of the ansatze works well.