Limestone Professor Erin Pushman Has Book Published

After its publication was delayed several times, Limestone University professor Erin M. Pushman finally got to see her book on shelves earlier this year.

“How to Read Like a Writer: 10 Lessons to Elevate Your Reading and Writing Practice” is now available for those who look to improve their writing skills. It is available for purchase wherever books are sold and through Amazon and other websites in hardcover and paperback. It is also available in digital format.

A professor of English at Limestone, Pushman also directs the University’s Writing Center and edits the annual “Candelabra” literary journal.

“Having a book published during the coronavirus pandemic posed challenges on the production end, but it didn't change anything about the writing,” she said about its delay.

The book is a walk-through that dives into the essential lessons that writers should observe in order to elevate their writing. Elements of writing such as plot, conflict, character development, and point of view are just a few of the topics discussed throughout.

“Writers read words the way mechanics study engines,” Pushman notes in her debut that was released earlier this year by Bloomsbury Academic. Reading and writing are similar crafts, according to Pushman, and “reading like a writer” means paying attention to how a piece of writing, whether a micro-essay on social media or a novel, was constructed.

“Publisher Weekly” recently reviewed the book saying, “Those looking to get the most out of their reading experience and get the pen moving should give this a look.”

“The first step to becoming a successful writer is to become a successful reader,” Pushman said as she outlines, step-by-step, the ways in which writers can improve across a variety of genres and mediums.

Pushman’s other writings have appeared in numerous magazines and journals. She also blogs in “The Face of Bravery” about her daughter’s life as a critically ill child with a disability.

Her new project is a narrative nonfiction book about the maternal-fetal health crisis in America.