Mia Nosanow, author of The College Student’s Guide to Mental Health: Essential Wellness Strategies for Flourishing in College
General Nonfiction Category, sponsored by Fredrikson & Byron P.A.
Each week leading up to the 37th annual Minnesota Book Awards, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
What inspired you to write this book – or inspired you while writing it?
My first inspiration was curiosity about the topics that students brought into counseling over and over, and how many of those topics were normal struggles of growth and emerging adulthood. My second inspiration was the ongoing mental health crisis in our young people. I wanted to create an accessible resource that focused on those everyday issues and offered practical “how to” strategies, which could be used for prevention and education.
What is one detail you wanted to include in this book, but couldn’t find a place for?
It’s not a detail, but I wished that I could write a chapter on how to manage money for students. I know money issues can cause much anguish and can play a significant role in stress and anxiety. I wish I was qualified to write about it.
Tell us about someone (whose name isn’t on the cover!) who proved instrumental to the creation of this book.
Scott Edelstein, my writing and publishing consultant, gave me the confidence and the insider information to help me finish my book and send it out to publishers. He was my book doula!
Please tell us something about yourself that is not widely known. (It doesn’t have to be about the book in question – or even about your writing at all!)
I love to crochet and consider it an important part of my mental health practice. There is a lot of new research about how handicrafts can help regulate our brains. This is especially important as an antidote to phone addiction. (And I did win a pink ribbon at the MN State Fair for crocheting a bowl of strawberries and cream in 2009.)
Share your thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
Librarians are my heroes, and libraries are sanctuaries of inspiration, creativity, information and discovery. Libraries are there for everyone who walks in their doors. I think of my local library, St. Anthony Park Branch Library, as a significant third space, as I have been going there about once a week for almost 30 years. And I’d also like to thank the Roseville Library, where I wrote much of my book!
Mia Nosanow, MA, LP, is a licensed psychologist and longtime therapist who specializes in college mental health. For twenty years, Nosanow worked at Macalester College in Saint Paul, seeing thousands of students for individual and group counseling.