[2] Sherwood attended Howard University in the early 1960s on an Agnes and Eugene Meyer Scholarship before earning her B.A.

She continued the study of fiction writing at Stanford University after winning a Stegner Fellowship in 1976 (as Frances Madoo).

Twenty-four of her short stories have been published in magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly ("Basil the Dog," September 1999), Zoetrope, and TriQuarterly.

[3] In 1986, Sherwood was hired as an assistant professor of English at Indiana University South Bend, where she taught creative writing and journalism.

Frances Sherwood said she considered herself a "new historical" novelist, a writer who displaces current political and psychological issues onto earlier times and exotic locales.