Frances Eleanor Cherry (née Birchfield; 25 November 1937 – 24 April 2022) was a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer, and teacher of creative writing.
[1] Her parents, Albert and Connie Birchfield, were well known communists[2] and she described her embarrassment as a teenager at seeing her mother making a speech on a soapbox in Courtenay Place,[1] or her father selling the People’s Voice in Cuba Street.
[3] Cherry wrote novels for both adults and children, and her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and educational publications and been broadcast on radio.
[3] Dancing With Strings was described by Aorewa McLeod, a lecturer at the University of Auckland, as "New Zealand's first lesbian novel".
[4] Cherry ran memoir and novel writing workshops for more than 20 years in adult community education classes around Wellington.