Cheryl Dumesnil

Cheryl Dumesnil earned her BA in English language and literature with an emphasis on writing and teaching from Santa Clara University. She went on to earn an MFA from Syracuse University and an MSW from San Jose State University.

Dumesnil is the author of the poetry collections What Is Left to Say (Glass Lyre Press, 2023); Showtime at the Ministry of Lost Causes (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016); and In Praise of Falling (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), which won the 2008 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Dumesnil is also the author of the memoir Love Song for Baby X: How I Stayed (almost) Sane on the Rocky Road to Parenthood (Ig Publishing, 2013).

Dumesnil has also contributed to and edited several anthologies of both poetry and prose. With Kim Addonizio, Dumesnil coedited Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos (Grand Central Publishing, 2009), a collection of essays, poems, and short stories by various writers on the subject of body art. In 2007, Dumesnil contributed to Yuba Flows (Hip Pocket Press), a collection of poetry by six poets from Northern California, edited by Gail Rudd. Dumesnil edited the anthology Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall (Hachette Books, 2005), a collection of personal stories. 

Dumesnil taught creative writing at Santa Clara University from 1996 to 2001 and briefly served on the thesis faculty in the University of San Francisco’s MFA writing program from 2013 to 2014.

Dumesnil lives in Walnut Creek, California.