Christine Riley grew up in Manchester, surrounded by an absurdly large collection of words, nerds, Irish tenors, and hapless politicians. She learned to wallpaper at age 8, play the guitar at 12, make her own clothes at 14, and for many years believed that tent-camping with a family of five in a Volkswagen bug was normal. After graduating without distinction from Manchester Central High School, she traveled the country taste-testing a total of seven colleges that resulted in one B.A. in English from Averett College in Virginia [now Averett University], and one M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Antioch New England University. She has had successful careers in journalism, publishing, human resources, and university administration, and has been licensed in both New Hampshire and North Carolina as a licensed clinical mental health counselor. She is recently retired and living in Manchester with her husband, artist Michael Koza.
Starting in the early 1960s, both my parents were active in New Hampshire politics. They always “worked the polls” when I was a kid growing up in Manchester, though I never really knew what that meant. As an unsuspecting fourth grader, they had me stuffing envelopes for Barry Goldwater when he ran for president in […]
