Frances Eleanor Cherry (née Birchfield; 25 November 1937 – 24 April 2022) was a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer, and teacher of creative writing.

Biography

Cherry was born on 25 November 1937 in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. Her parents, Albert and

Connie Birchfield Constance Alice "Connie" Birchfield (27 July 1898 – 9 May 1994) was a New Zealand housekeeper, trade unionist, hotel maid, communist, bookseller and political activist. She was born in Haydock, Lancashire, England on 27 July 1898. Birchfi ...

, were well known communists and she described her embarrassment as a teenager at seeing her mother making a speech on a soapbox in Courtenay Place, or her father selling the ''People’s Voice'' in Cuba Street. Cherry wrote novels for both adults and children, and her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and educational publications and been broadcast on radio. Her work often includes themes of feminism, lesbianism and anti-establishment ideas. ''Dancing With Strings'' was described by Aorewa McLeod, a lecturer at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

, as "New Zealand's first lesbian novel". Cherry ran memoir and novel writing workshops for more than 20 years in adult community education classes around Wellington. When cutbacks led to many of those courses being cut, she continued to run them in her own home. Cherry lived in Wellington, and died there on 24 April 2022.

Awards and prizes

''Leon'' was shortlisted in the Senior Fiction category of the 2001 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards and was also named as a 2001 Storylines Notable Book.

Bibliography

;Adult fiction * ''Dancing with Strings'' (1989) * ''The Widowhood of Jacki Bates'' (New Women’s Press, 1991) * ''Washing up in Parrot Bay'' (Steele Roberts, 1999) ;Short stories * ''The Daughter-in-Law and Other Stories'' (New Women’s Press, 1986) * ''Gate Crasher'' (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2006) * ''Out of Her Hair and Other Stories'' (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2009) * ''Double Act: stories from Frances Cherry and Annabel Fagan'' (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2010) ;Memoir * ''To be Perfectly Frances'' (Steele Roberts, 2018) ;Children’s and young adult fiction * ''In the Dark'' (Mallinson Rendel, 1999) * ''Leon'' (Mallinson Rendel, 2000) * ''Flashpoint'' (Scholastic, 2006) * ''Kyla'' (Scholastic, 2009) * ''Pay Back'' (CreateBooks, 2017)

References

External links

* Profile o
Frances Cherry
on Read NZ Te Pou Muramura website * Profile o

on Storylines website {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherry, Frances 1937 births 2022 deaths Writers from Wellington City 20th-century New Zealand novelists 20th-century New Zealand women writers 20th-century New Zealand short story writers 21st-century New Zealand novelists 21st-century New Zealand women writers 21st-century New Zealand short story writers New Zealand children's writers New Zealand women children's writers Writers of young adult literature Women writers of young adult literature