Blake Gumprecht

Who I am I am a writer, geographer, mapmaker, photographer, and father. I live in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with my 13-year-old son, Zeke. What I do I am an associate professor and chair of the Department of Geography at the University of New Hampshire, where I have worked since 2003. Before that, I was a faculty member at the University of South Carolina and the University of Oklahoma. You can learn more about my work from my vita. I have written two books, The American College Town (University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), and The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). I am currently conducting research for a book about the history (and geography) of immigration in New England tentatively entitled The Peopling of New England. I teach a long list of courses: Regional Geography of the Western World, Geography of the United States and Canada, Geography of New England, Human Geography, Economic Geography, Urban Geography, Place and Popular Culture, Geography of Food, and Historical Geography. I explore. I've lived in 15 states and have traveled in 48 states, six Canadian provinces, and eight countries. I drive two-lane roads, take the business route through town, and walk around urban neighborhoods whenever I can. I take photographs. Many of my photos relate to my research, but others don't. A collection of my college town photographs is available on Flickr. I've also posted many other photos, along with a few of my maps, on Flickr. I cook and bake. I have been a vegetarian since 1990 and make almost all the bread I consume. I also love to seek out hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants. My curiosity about ethnic cuisines stimulated me to create a course on the geography of food. Before pursuing a career as geographer, I was a newspaper reporter, worked in the music business, and was a librarian. I wrote for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, among other newspapers. I was the first paid employee of Twin/Tone Records and also worked at Alligator and MCA Records. I was a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library and Temple University. Some of my music writing is available on Rock's Back Pages. Things I like Places: Boston Public Library courtyard, Bunker Creek, Carrizo Plain, Center City Philadelphia, Chicoutimi, Los Angeles River, Patel Bros. supermarket, Ray Winder Field, Rittenhouse Square, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Seapoint Beach, St. Paul's Cathedral, Super 88 food court, Tacos Delta, University of Oklahoma campus, Vinalhaven, West Texas. Movies: 35 Shots of Rum, American Wake, Ballast, Best of Youth, Chop Shop, A Christmas Tale, The Class, The Cove, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Edge of Heaven, Goodbye Solo, Lion's Den, Lonely are the Brave, Machuca, Man Push Cart, Nine Queens, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, A Single Man, Sin Nombre, The Son, This is England, The Tunnel, The World. My ratings of movies I've watched since 2004 are available here. Music: Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, Vic Chesnutt, Leonard Cohen, Steve Earle, Robert Forster, Fountains of Wayne, Al Green, Merle Haggard, LCD Sound System, Lightning Hopkins, Mekons, Elliot Smith, Replacements, Sleigh Bells, Stanley Brothers, Stars, St. Vincent, Tiesto, Townes Van Zandt, the XX, Neil Young. Books: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger; Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth; Heinrich Boll, And Never Said a Word; Richard Ford, Lay of the Land; Ernest Hebert, The Dogs of March; Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities; Richard Kuklick, To Everything a Season; Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies; John McNamee, Diary of a City Priest; Alistair MacLeod, Island: The Complete Stories; Abdelrahman Munif, Cities of Salt; Don Newmark, Chavez Ravine 1949; Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses; Danny Santiago, Famous All Over Town; Richard Shelton, Going Back to Bisbee; Wallace Stegner, Big Rock Candy Mountain; Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome. Restaurants: ABC Cafe, Angelica Kitchen, Arrow Street Crepes, Benny Tudinos, Brookline Lunch, Cafe Phare, Charley's Sandwich Shoppe, Chicago Diner, Dante & Luigi's, The Diner, The Grit, Pho Viet's, Singh's Roti Shop, Tacos Delta, Tu Y Yo. Sports: Boston Bruins, UNH hockey. How to contact me E-mail: blake.gumprecht@unh.edu Post: Department of Geography, University of Hampshire, Huddleston Hall, 73 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824-2541.