Cheryl Merrill's publications include poems in Paintbrush, Northwest Review, Willow Springs and others; poems anthologized in A Gift of Tongues: 25 Years of Poetry from Copper Canyon Press; a chapbook of poems, Cheat Grass from Copper Canyon Press in 1975; and publications of a photo-essay series about elephants in Iron Horse Literary Review and in The Drexel Online Journal. Excerpts from her book in progress were published in Fourth Genre, Pilgrimage, Brevity, Seems, South Loop Review, Ghoti, Alaska Quarterly Review and Isotope. Her essay, "Singing Like Yma Sumac," was selected for the "Best of Brevity 2005" and included in Creative Nonfiction #27. It was also included in the anthology Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition, 10th Edition. Her essay, "Trunk," was chosen for Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXXII Best of the Small Presses 2008 Anthology. An illustrated excerpt was published in July, 2011 in Adventum, a literary magazine of the outdoors.

She is currently working on a book about elephants: Larger than Life: Living in the Shadows of Elephants.