J.R. Potter is the award-winning author and illustrator of the Thomas Creeper mystery series that follows the adventures (and misadventures) of a thirteen-year-old mortician's apprentice turned detective for the dead.

 

The debut in the series Thomas Creeper and the Gloomsbury Secret won the 2019 Kraken Prize for Middle Grade Fiction. The sequel, Thomas Creeper and the Purple Corpse, was shortlisted for the 2023 Stoker Award.

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His graphic novel work has been published by Image Comics, and his educational work promoting literacy, wonder, and empathy has been published by Heinemann Publishing (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). In March 2024, he received the Denis Diderot Emerging Artist Award to spend two weeks as writer-in-residence at the prestigious artist residency Chateau Orquevaux in France. In September 2025, he won the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize for his romance-thriller A Summer for Moths (coming 2026), a high-octane, cinematic love story inspired by The Great Gatsby. The novella will be published under Potter's pseudonym for adult fiction (Henry Rivers) and a tour combining live music and live readings will follow. 

 

When he's not dreaming up the next story, you can find him writing and playing music, an early love that will not go away. His recent solo record "Love Manifesto" can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music along with two records with his partner Amy and their Americana band the Crooked Angels. 

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Follow him on Instagram for the latest updates @allbooksbuildbridges

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"Keep Reading, Keep Dreaming!"