Cheryl A. Ossola is a second-generation Italian American writer and former neonatal ICU nurse. Her work explores family, identity, heritage, and the ties that bind people across time and place. She holds an MFA in writing from the University of San Francisco, and her writing has appeared in Fourteen Hills, Writer's Digest, Switchback, VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, and Eastern Iowa Review: Best Prose Poetry 2025. She writes Italicus: a writer's life in Italy, and her second novel, How Long a Shadow, is forthcoming from Cennan Books in 2026. She lives in Umbria, Italy.