Cherie L. Dargan

Author Bio:

After teaching writing, literature, and educational technology courses at Hawkeye Community College for 20 years, Cherie took early retirement in 2016. She became an active volunteer with the Cedar Falls Authors Festival, celebrating the five nationally known, best-selling writers with ties to Cedar Falls—Bess Streeter Aldrich, Ruth Suckow, James Hearst, Robert Waller, and Nancy Price. They hosted 60 programs during 2017-2018. She also became its webmaster.

She wrote two chapters for collections of academic essays: one about Iowa writer Ruth Suckow and the other about the literary history of Cedar Falls, Iowa. During Covid, Cherie finished the first in her series of novels called Grandmother's Treasures, The Gift and drafted four more books. Wordcrafts Press published The Gift in October 2022 and The Legacy in 2023. She's at work revising the Third book, The Promise.

Cherie became President of the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk-Bremer Counties in 2017, advocating for voting rights for all, organizing voter registration events, and writing letters to the editor. Cherie is married to retired librarian Mike Dargan, who serves as her tech support, fact checker, and cheerleader. They have four adult children and three grandchildren.

The Legacy (Grandmother's Treasures, Book Two)

Sarah, a widowed schoolteacher, rushes to be with her sister, Emily, about to give birth. It's September 1864, and the war has come to Winchester, Virginia yet again. Sadly, Emily and her baby die, leaving Sarah to take Emily's maid Rebecca and son Bobby to freedom. Her mother insists she take along…

The Gift (Grandmother's Treasures, Book One)

The year is 2012. Gracie works at the county museum in Jubilee Junction, Iowa, where she is hard at work putting together an exhibit of historic quilts. She struggles with an overbearing boyfriend who is pressuring her to leave her hometown and get a job near him in the big city, juggling three jobs…