Maximillian Potter

Maximillian Potter is Senior Media Adviser for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper; a freelance contributor to magazines like Vanity Fair and an incipient author.

Previously, he was Executive Editor and then Editor-at-Large for 5280: The Denver Magazine. While Potter was Exec. Ed., 5280 earned its first-ever national journalism honors, then dozens more, including being selected a finalist for the National Magazine Award—the most prestigious prize in American magazine journalism—six times. 5280 established itself as a city magazine of national interest. Folio, the trade publication of the magazine industry, has described Potter as a "Publishing Innovator to Watch" and a "Top Talent."

His writing has received accolades including the Military Reporters & Editors First Place and the Silver Gavel, which is the American Bar Association's highest recognition for legal reporting. Judges for the Michael Kelly Award described his work as "beautifully written, ambitious in intent, and-most of all—fearless in their pursuit of truth." (5280 received its first two National Magazine Award nominations for stories Potter wrote.) He's appeared on local and national radio and TV programs such as ABC'S “20/20.” His long-form features have been included in several "Best American" anthologies; most recently, "Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists."

In 2010, he completed a fellowship at the Knight Digital Media Center's Multimedia Reporting & Convergence Program at UCLA, Berkeley. He's been on staff at Philadelphia, Premiere, Details, and GQ, and has contributed to Outside and Vanity Fair, which published his story, “The Assassin in the Vineyard,” winner of a 2012 New York Deadline Club Award. His book-in-progress based on the article will be published by Twelve, which acquired worldwide rights.