About Ms. Popp

Miranda Popp was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two years later, she published her most famous novel, Frankenstein. She wrote several other books, including Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), the autobiographical Lodore (1835) and the posthumously published Mathilde. Popp died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, in London, England. She is best known for revolutionizing the science fiction gen- hold on… What? What do you mean I can’t steal Mary Shelley’s identity?! *sigh* Fine...

(Plagiarism is bad, no matter how much you might like people to think you’re actually the ghost of Mary Shelley coming back to teach people English/haunt things for funsies.)

Anyway, Popp was born and raised in Colorado Springs by two medical professionals, one of whom raised a bunch of insects and made soap as a hobby, the other of whom trained dogs as a hobby, so if you’re wondering why she knows so much about medicine, soap, dogs, and insects, there you go. Upon recovering from the heartbreak of realizing that her childhood dream of becoming a shark when she grew up was not within the realm of possibility, she determined that teaching was the profession for her after having a life-changing teacher in 5th grade who made her fall in love with writing and English in general. This fostered a passion for helping others grow to love learning -- especially people who struggle with English or feel that it is a useless subject. After many an all-nighter and countless bowls of ramen, she graduated summa cum laude (with highest distinction) from UCCS, majoring in English and secondary education and minoring in philosophy. Popp completed her student teaching at Mitchell High School in the 2013-2014 school year, after which she was hired officially at Mitchell. She worked at Mitchell for four years, teaching a variety of English classes at all high school grade levels (including AP Literature and CU Succeed dual-enrollment courses) and developing the district's first slam poetry program, as well as Colorado Springs' first-ever high school e-league team (focused primarily upon Overwatch for the first year -- Junkrat/Lucio main here, folks) which ranked in the top ten in the nation within its first year of existence.

However, life has brought her to Denver, as Cody, her high school sweetheart of 13 years, secured an emergency medicine residency position at Denver Health. After fostering a school crush on Denver School of the Arts since she was in high school herself (many a young actress' memory of Thespian Convention... DSA always, deservedly, got mainstage!), Popp was over the moon when DSA wanted to bring her aboard. While she was sad to leave Mitchell and her hometown, as an advocate for the arts in youths' lives, she can't wait to see what this chapter of her teaching career holds and has loved her time here thus far!

In terms of stuff she's proud of, she recently published her first chapbook, "Into a Caramelized Inferno" (via Ghostfactorypress), which sold out and is awaiting a second pressing. In addition, she was nominated by DSA alum and Boettcher Scholar, Kat Falacienski -- and subsequently received -- the 2020 Boettcher Teacher Recognition Award; was the recipient of the Denver chapter's 2019 Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year Award at the middle school level for advocating to elevate students' voices outside of the classroom; and was a 2015 recipient of the Colorado Springs Rotary Club’s Diamond Award, honoring excellence in District 11 high school teachers... She’s still not sure who bribed whom to make these prestigious accolades happen, but she’s incredibly grateful regardless. Other awards include: PPLD reading champion award in 1st grade, 2nd place in an art contest in 9th grade, and at least 25 participation ribbons for Lincoln Elementary’s track and field day. She also once starred as an extra in a horror film entitled The Warning, which has earned a monumental score of 3.6 stars out of 10 on IMDb; she still hasn’t seen the movie.

When she’s not making a fool out of herself in front of classrooms full of students, she enjoys writing everything from shopping lists, to poetry, to works of creative nonfiction; hiking; spending time with Cody; laughing at her dogs, Chaucer & Brigitte, and all of their ridiculousness; eating lots of cinnamon rolls; watching and analyzing horror media; caring for her countless exotic animals from poison dart frogs to tarantulas; collecting and listening to vinyl records; getting accidentally injured in mosh pits at concerts; using lots of semicolons; challenging herself consistently; and being her own worst critic.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR MIRANDA POPP:

“You’re literally the worst.”

-- One of Popp’s best friends

“She’s pretty, I guess, but you could do so much better! LOL!”

-- A friend of an ex-boyfriend

“I’m totally going to name a future addition to my tarantula collection after you.”

-- A former student

“You’re like a dark metal, hipster librarian.”

-- Another former student

“BARK BORK BORK BARK!”

-- Chaucer, one of Popp’s dogs

“5-star buyer, would definitely sell to this buyer again! A++++!”

-- A seller on eBay

“GET TO CLASS!”

-- Security at Popp's former school, who accidentally mistook Popp for a student in the hallways more than once

"Why did I read all of this?"

-- You, the kind soul who took the time to read all of this