E.E. Hussey celebrates Goodyear Arts residency and upcoming novels
E.E. Hussey, assistant professor of English, celebrated her 2026 spring session in the artist‑in‑residence program at Goodyear Arts with a final showcase and artist talk that offered visitors a look inside her creative process.
Goodyear Arts is an artist‑run space in Charlotte that presents free visual art, film, talks and performances by musicians, writers, poets and dancers. The residency program provides private studio space and stipends to three groups of artists each year. The 2026 spring residency featured Hussey, painter Bhare, artist and director Virginia Broyles and curator and archivist Brooke Gibbons.
Over the six-week residency, Hussey’s studio transformed from a blank slate to a creative workspace. The large walls helped her map the entire structure of her upcoming novel and she spent hours drafting on her vintage typewriters.
For the April 3 showcase, Hussey turned the front gallery into an installation of research and early drafts, displaying archival materials, first‑draft typewriter pages and two of her typewriters. Visitors were invited to type their own words, and Hussey curated vases of flowers for attendees to take home.
During the artist talk on April 17, Hussey answered questions from engaged attendees about both of her upcoming novels, her writing process and her experience in residence.
“The whole goal for me is just to show the process. It’s been so energizing and has given me a tremendous head start on my next novel,” Hussey said. “I had the space to experiment and be inspired by the really interesting projects the other artists are working on.“
Showcasing her writing process
During the residency, Hussey worked on the first draft of a hybrid novel set in early 1900s New Zealand, exploring themes of environmental isolation and revenge. The project began after she discovered a vintage New Zealand hunting guide containing archival images of moose, which were imported for hunting in 1901 and again in 1907.
“It’s the weirdest thing,” Hussey said. “We have this incredible capability to think of new ideas, and we decided it’s important to import moose somewhere just to shoot them?”
The absurdity sparked what she now calls her “revenge joy novel,” shaped by her background in science writing and her interest in folklore. To build the book’s atmosphere, Hussey researched the South Island’s remote Fiordland National Park using a wildlife guide and archival images.
“I usually think about voice before I start writing, but this time I wanted to think about atmosphere,” Hussey said. “I’m matching up some of the colors in the landscape that I’m seeing in my wildlife guide.”
In December, she will travel to New Zealand for the first time to visit archives and experience the remote landscape where the moose were last seen.
“I just received a research grant and I’m really excited,” she said. “There is a biologist that is still looking for the moose, but I don’t think they’ve been spotted since the 1950s. I’m hoping I’ll be able to talk to him.”
A creative home in Charlotte
Hussey applied for the residency shortly after joining the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences in fall 2025, hoping to find community in a new city.
“This place is gorgeous, the energy is fabulous and the people here are amazing. It’s very cool that they’re open to seeing work in progress, especially for a novel which takes so long to complete,” Hussey said. “I love that none of the art is homogeneous, everyone’s doing really cool experimental work.”
Being around different mediums has inspired Hussey, who naturally gravitates toward ekphrastic generative writing, which is the process of looking at pictures or art and responding to it.
“When I was stuck with my novel, I actually purchased a print from another artist and wrote a short story based on that,” Hussey said. “I like that you can just walk around and see if something strikes you.”
UNC Charlotte connections
UNC Charlotte has longstanding ties to Goodyear Arts. Founding Goodyear Artist Collective member Holly Keogh, a graduate of the College of Arts and Architecture, was the program’s first artist in residence. Since then, numerous faculty members and alumni have participated in the program, including Tom Burch, Anna Kenar and Matthew Steele from the College of Arts and Architecture.
William S. Davis, professor in the Film Studies Program and UNC Charlotte alumnus, was a fall 2025 artist in residence and now lends his videography and photography expertise to documenting subsequent residencies.
Both Davis and Hussey were mentored by collective member Jeff Jackson, a novelist, playwright, visual artist and songwriter who previously taught a film course at UNC Charlotte.
“My colleague Allison Hutchcraft, poet and assistant professor of English, asked if I knew about Goodyear Arts,” Hussey said. “I did a walkthrough, liked it and applied, but then it clicked later how many UNC Charlotte connections there are.”
Teaching, community and what comes next
This spring, Hussey is teaching intermediate fiction and a graduate course on the novella. She encourages students to embrace experimentation and imperfection.
“I try to impress upon newer writers that you should be making mistakes, and you shouldn’t be thinking about the final product,” Hussey said. “I hope I give them a little more freedom in the classroom to experiment and build trust, respect and community too.”
Since joining UNC Charlotte, Hussey has enjoyed the interdisciplinary spirit on campus. Director of Galleries Adam Justice welcomed her students for an ekphrastic writing exercise, and Director of the Botanical Gardens Jeff Gilman offered tours that sparked new creative work.
“I think that’s a really great thing about UNC Charlotte,” she said. “People are so welcoming and willing to share their expertise.”
Goodyear Arts will continue its programming throughout the year. Alexander Beets, poet and College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences alumnus and administrative support associate, is participating in the early summer residency.
As for leaving her studio in Camp North End, Hussey said the time passed too quickly.
“I’m so sad, the six weeks flew by. I blinked and it was over,” Hussey said. “But this is going to be the year of just go, go, go. I was just awarded a writers residency in Mexico City for June and then hopefully I’ll be able to get some rest in July.”
About E.E. Hussey
E.E. Hussey was born in the Philippines, raised in Japan and Italy and has lived in several U.S. cities. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, the Johns Hopkins science writing program and the University of Alabama’s MFA program. She is an assistant professor of English at UNC Charlotte. Her novel, “Hafa Adai,” is forthcoming from Curbstone Books in early 2027.
Her fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review (“Spider Fight”), Hayden’s Ferry Review (“Strange Foot and the Auditor”) and PANK (“Howled Me Down”). Her nonfiction includes “Monstrum” in Carve Magazine, which was named a notable essay in Best American Essays, and “Heart” in The Collapsar. Her hybrid work “Bones and Honey” appeared in Passages North.
Hussey has held residencies at Casa Lü Sur, Goodyear Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. She is a former Tin House Scholar, Desert Nights Rising Stars Fellow through the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University and 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee from The Collapsar. Her past appointments include serving as a visiting assistant professor of English and creative writing at Sewanee: The University of the South.
Photos by Emily Hamm/Courtesy of E.E. Hussey.