I am a writer and photographer. I live in El Paso, Texas.

I was an academic geographer for more than two decades. I was a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of New Hampshire for fourteen years. I was also department chair for six years. Before that, I was on the faculty of the University of South Carolina, and taught at the University of Oklahoma. I earned a Ph.D. in geography from Oklahoma.

I have written three books, the newest of which was published in April 2023 by Oxford University Press. It is entitled North to Boston: Life Histories from the Black Great Migration in New England. My book takes an unusual approach: I tell the story of Black migration to the city primarily through the life histories of 10 individuals. Each is the subject of one chapter. Those chapters are short biographies, full of moving and memorable stories about real people. My book is the first work about the Great Migration’s impacts on Boston. You can read the introduction here, as well as a sample chapter.

I am also the author of The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth and The American College Town. Both books were awarded the American Association of Geographers’ J. B. Jackson Prize, the most prestigious book prize in American geography. I was the first two-time winner of this award. I also produced studies about Italian settlement in New England, the music of West Texas, the role of tree planting in the making of place in the Great Plains, and the whiskey towns of Oklahoma Territory.

In 2017, I gave up my academic career to return to my first love, journalism. My undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas is in journalism. All I ever wanted to be growing up was a reporter, but I graduated into a recession, which reduced job opportunities, so left the field. When I returned recently, I edited a weekly newspaper in Alabama, worked as a reporter for two metro dailies, and started my own newspaper in New Mexico (it went out of business). But I left newspapers in 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic because there were few jobs available. I taught high school on the Navajo reservation and I am now working on a book about the Navajo.

I’ve led a varied life. During college, I was a radio disc jockey (and produced a fanzine based on band interviews I did), covered sports and the Kansas Legislature as a reporter (as well as the 1980 presidential election), and worked for the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Rochester Times-Union, and other newspapers. After college, I worked in the music business and as a librarian. I’ve lived all over and have traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada. As the old Hank Snow song says, I’ve been everywhere.

This site provides access to samples of my writing and photographs. You can contact me at blake.gumprecht@gmail.com.