In this Tip Sheet, D. H. Melhem summarizes her contribution to the panel discussion The Good News: Reports From the Field- Recent Presenting and Publishing Projects From Around the State, held at Facing Pages: A Statewide Literary Convening, on May 13, 2006. D.H. Melhem is the recipient of an American Book Award, a Ph.D. Alumni Association Special Achievement Award (CUNY), and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Her 7th collection, New York Poems (2005), was published by Syracuse University Press which distributes her novel Blight. Other works include essays, 2 anthologies, Reaching Exercise; Conversation with a Stonemason, Country, and Rest in Love, an acclaimed elegy for her mother; and Children of the House Afire, a musical drama. Gwendolyn Brooks and Heroism in the New Black Poetry were groundbreaking studies. She is VP of the International Women?s Writing Guild.