Tussing was a graduate of the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop, where he held a Teaching/Writing Fellowship.
He later became a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
In 2005, Tussing was selected, along with Uwem Akpan and Karen Russell, to appear in the New Yorker's annual Début Fiction issue.
From 2005-2007, Tussing taught English literature and creative writing at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
Currently he is an associate professor of English and director of the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Maine.