CHAMPLIN, Minn. — If you want to know how a long-time Minnesota teacher became an acclaimed Minnesota author, Nicole Kronzer says the setting of her personal story plays a central role.
"Working here has changed my life in so many ways," said Kronzer, referencing the Champlin Park High School library where her recent career transition began. "I don't know who I would be without this place."
Kronzer has been a creative writing teacher at Champlin Park High School since 2006. In that time, she estimates that she has helped roughly 4,000 students find their voice.
"We do a lot of different activities that get our brain going," said Champlin Park senior, Nyakoach Mangok. "She just really helps with that, to take us outside of the box."
But for much of Kronzer's life, and early teaching career, she struggled to view her own writing in the same way.
"I somehow internalized that, in order to be a professional writer, you had to be a man and live in New York City and I was neither of those things," Kronzer said. "I thought that I didn't get to do that."
It took several years, and many trips to the library, for that thought to finally fade.
"The librarian at the time, Terri Evans, started bringing in all these authors, and she said, 'It's really important that kids see that authors are just people,'" Kronzer said. "The side effect was that I also saw that authors are just people. They weren't magical unicorns."
Though, one of those authors did help her unlock her own magic.
"I said, 'I think there's a young adult book inside me,'" Kronzer said, recalling that pivotal conversation. "And she's like, you should write it."
She did write it, and a few years later, in 2020, her debut novel, Unscripted was published.
"(Unscripted) is about this girl who has Saturday Night Live dreams and she goes to this improv camp in the mountains of Colorado," Kronzer said. "She ends up being the only girl in the top team and she finds herself in this emotionally abusive situation."
The story resonated. Unscripted was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young Adult Literature in 2021.
That success also gave Kronzer the confidence to scale back her teaching in order to focus on her next book, The Roof Over Our Heads.
"One of the threads of that book that was influenced by my students is about this kid who thinks he has to be one kind of person in order to fit in with his family," Kronzer said. "But of course he doesn't. He just has to be true to who he is."
In staying true to who she is, and her experience, Kronzer once again finds herself as a Minnesota Book Award Finalist for Young Adult Literature.
Kent Erdahl: "How much does this place translate to your writing."
Nicole Kronzer: "Yeah, so both of my books were definitely influenced by my students."
Her students are aware, and proud of, that influence.
"I think she sees what we do and how we interact with each other and puts it into her novels," Mangok said. "She listens. She's a very talented person and a very good teacher."
She's also seen her own story come full circle in the process.
"My dream is to become a published author," said Champlin Park Senior, Madie Smith. "So seeing her, knowing that she can do both (writing and teaching) is really cool and inspiring."
Erdahl: "Now your students are the ones saying you're inspiring them."
Kronzer: "Awww. I love teenagers so much. I think they are the best of us. The thing about being a teenager is that it's the only time in your life that you can see both your childhood and your adulthood from where you're standing. Ultimately, their centers are just full of so much hope and then it makes me feel like I get to have that hope too."
For more information on the finalists, and winners, of the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards, click here.
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