A collinear beam apparatus has been used to study photodetachment of Cs − . Partial cross sections were measured using state-selective detection based on a resonance ionization scheme. Several resonances were observed in the Cs(10 2 S), Cs(6 2 F ), Cs(6 2 G), and Cs(6 2 H ) final-state channels below the Cs(10 2 P 3/2 ) channel opening. A model was developed to account for the interference between overlapping resonances. This model is essentially a generalization of the Fano [U. Fano, Phys. Rev. 124, 1866(1961] and Shore [ B. W. Shore, Phys. Rev. 171, 43 (1968)] parametrizations for single resonances. Resonance parameters were extracted by fitting the model to the data sets. The openings of the Cs(10 2 S) and Cs(6 2 F ) channels, where the polarizabilities of the atomic states are large and positive, showed rapid onsets. In the case of the Cs(6 2 G) and Cs(6 2 H ) channels, on the other hand, the photodetachment cross sections increased slowly with energy. For the Cs(6 2 H ) channel this is the expected behavior, since it is the result of a large and negative polarizability of the 6 2 H state. In addition, the excitation of the Cs(6 2 H ) state with respect to the Cs ground state was found to be 28 356.3(2) cm −1 , in agreement with a previous experiment.