diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5c6dcc7..219741c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -34,12 +34,10 @@ where:
 
 ## Usage
 
-```py
-from pubtator_loader import PubTatorCorpusReader
-dataset_reader = PubTatorCorpusReader('./sample_pubator_input.txt')
+```python
+from pubtator_loader import from_path, PubTatorDocument
 
-corpus = dataset_reader.load_corpus() 
-# corpus will be a List[PubtatorDocuments]
+corpus: list[PubTatorDocument] = from_path('./sample_pubator_input.txt')
 
 for doc in corpus:
     print(doc)
diff --git a/pubtator_loader/__init__.py b/pubtator_loader/__init__.py
index 17aeaed..c56a434 100644
--- a/pubtator_loader/__init__.py
+++ b/pubtator_loader/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-from .models import PubTatorEntity, PubTatorDocument # noqa
-from .pubtator_corpus_reader import PubTatorCorpusReader
\ No newline at end of file
+from .models import PubTatorDocument, PubTatorEntity  # noqa
+from .pubtator_corpus_reader import PubTatorCorpusReader, from_gz, from_lines, from_path  # noqa
diff --git a/pubtator_loader/models/pubtator_document.py b/pubtator_loader/models/pubtator_document.py
index 2cb28d8..449e718 100644
--- a/pubtator_loader/models/pubtator_document.py
+++ b/pubtator_loader/models/pubtator_document.py
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
-from spacy.language import Language
-from spacy.training import offsets_to_biluo_tags
 from .pubtator_entities import PubTatorEntity
-from typing import List
+from typing import List, TYPE_CHECKING
 import re
 import json
-from spacy.tokenizer import Tokenizer
-from spacy.util import compile_prefix_regex, compile_suffix_regex
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    import spacy.language
+    import spacy.tokenizer
 
 class PubTatorDocument:
     def __init__(self, id):
@@ -83,7 +82,10 @@ def __replace_overlapping_entities(self, span_replacement_fn):
 
         self.entities = processed_entities
 
-    def __get_custom_tokenizer(self, nlp: Language) -> Tokenizer:
+    def __get_custom_tokenizer(self, nlp: 'spacy.language.Language') -> 'spacy.tokenizer.Tokenizer':
+        from spacy.util import compile_prefix_regex, compile_suffix_regex
+        from spacy.tokenizer import Tokenizer
+
         infix_re = re.compile(
             r'''[!\"\#\$\%\&\'\(\)\*\+\,\-\.\/
             \:\;\<\=\>\?\@\[\\\]\^\_\`\{\|\}\~]'''
@@ -97,7 +99,7 @@ def __get_custom_tokenizer(self, nlp: Language) -> Tokenizer:
                          infix_finditer=infix_re.finditer,
                          token_match=None)
 
-    def tokenize_and_convert_to_bilou(self, nlp: Language):
+    def tokenize_and_convert_to_bilou(self, nlp: 'spacy.language.Language'):
         self.replace_overlapping_entities_w_longest()
         text = self.get_space_separated_title_and_abstract()
         # we need to use a custom tokenizer to avoid the alignment issues
@@ -113,6 +115,7 @@ def tokenize_and_convert_to_bilou(self, nlp: Language):
 
         results = []
         sentences_started = 0
+        from spacy.training import offsets_to_biluo_tags
         for token, semantic_type_id, entity_id in zip(
                 document,
                 offsets_to_biluo_tags(document,
diff --git a/pubtator_loader/pubtator_corpus_reader.py b/pubtator_loader/pubtator_corpus_reader.py
index 36ce686..53d17e7 100644
--- a/pubtator_loader/pubtator_corpus_reader.py
+++ b/pubtator_loader/pubtator_corpus_reader.py
@@ -1,10 +1,28 @@
 from enum import Enum
 import re
+import gzip
 
 from . import PubTatorDocument
 from . import PubTatorEntity
 
 
+def from_gz(path, mode='rt'):
+    """Parse a pubtator corpus from a gzip file at the given path."""
+    with gzip.open(path, mode=mode) as file:
+        return from_lines(file)
+
+def from_path(path):
+    """Parse a pubtator corpus from a file at the given path."""
+    with open(path) as file:
+        return from_lines(file)
+
+
+def from_lines(lines):
+    """Parse a pubtator corpus from the given iterable of lines."""
+    reader = PubTatorCorpusReader()
+    return reader.parse_lines(lines)
+
+
 class PubTatorCorpusReader:
     class LineType(Enum):
         TITLE = 'TITLE'
@@ -12,7 +30,7 @@ class LineType(Enum):
         MENTION = 'MENTION'
         DOC_SEP = 'DOCUMENT SEPARATOR'
 
-    def __init__(self, file_path):
+    def __init__(self, file_path=None):
         self.file_path = file_path
         self.__document_being_read = None
         self.corpus = []
@@ -37,9 +55,9 @@ def __init__(self, file_path):
     def load_corpus(self):
         with open(self.file_path, 'r') as file:
             lines = file.readlines()
-            return self.__parse_lines(lines)
+            return self.parse_lines(lines)
 
-    def __parse_lines(self, content_lines):
+    def parse_lines(self, content_lines):
         prev_line_type = None
         for line_number, line in enumerate(content_lines):
             try: