“They say you write from your own life and write what you know,” says Susan Kushman.

Her first novel tells the story of a young girl escaping abuse in a religious cult and discovering that she is surrounded by art. Her short story is the story of a girl of St. Jude healed by a weeping icon. Her other works take care of loved ones with mental health, adoption and Alzheimer’s disease.

And her new book “Pilgrim Interrupted” is full of threads from her life that readers will experience through 35 essays, 3 poems and 5 excerpts from her novels and short stories.

There is a story of her pilgrimage to Patmos, where the apocalypse of St. John was given and the cave of the apocalypse where the pilgrimage of Kushman was “interrupted” was visited.

And when she painted an icon that appeared in her church, the Orthodox Church of St. John, the story of her journey to the Eastern Orthodox Church, where she learned to write “Saint’s Life in Color”. I have.

“Pilgrimage. Orthodox. Icon. Monastery. Everything is here,” read the back cover. “But so is the story of mental health, care, death, family, and writing, including a section on’places’, an important element of Southern literature. And how is Susan’s pilgrimage “suspended”? By life itself. “

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Cushman began writing. She has a shoebox of letters she sent to her grandmother in the 1950s and 1960s, and she tells everything “including not telling her own mother.” The letter talked about her first kiss, fought her brother, and continued until she got married.

“I understand my life and what happened to me and write for healing. It’s very cathartic. Writing is very cathartic and healing for all my work. I hope there is an element of. “

However, it wasn’t until 2007 that she started her blog “PEN and PALETTE”. This blog post was the basis for her memoir “Tangles and Plaques: Mother and Daughter Faces Alzheimer’s Disease”.

Married to an Orthodox priest, Kushman left his childhood beliefs in the Presbyterian Church in the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1987, the year before he moved to Memphis.

The entire “Pilgrim Interrupted” section is about “icons, legitimacy, and spirituality.”

Icons are religious works of art, often depicting Christ, Mary, saints, and biblical scenes. They fill the walls and ceiling of the Orthodox Church.

“Icons have been called the Gospel in color. Of course, they are especially useful in past communities where people couldn’t read or write. Many of them tell stories.” I studied it. While I was there, I realized that I had found a whole new level of worship, “said Kushman.

For years, Cushman wrote icons, taught classes, and even undertook fees. She eventually stopped writing icons and she focused on full-time verbal writing from 2010.

On the cover of “Pilgrim Interrupt” is the symbol of Christ revealed by the brush.

After all, her new book is “a personal memoir and a spiritual journey,” Kushman said.

In it, she hopes that people “can find a measure of healing and encouragement to do their own spiritual pilgrimage, whether it is physical or just reading and praying.” I’m out.

Released at Novel Memphis

The spiritual memoir “Pilgrim Interrupt” will be released on Tuesday, June 7th and will be available in Novel Memphis at 6:30 pm. Novell is located at 387 Perkins Extension, 38117 in Memphis.

Catherine Burgess covers the county government and religion. She can contact katherine.burgess@Commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or follow her on Twitter@kathsburgess.