How do book reviewers decide which books
to review and how to review them? This subject, of obvious interest to writers,
will be examined by Tampa Tribune book review editor Diane Egner at the monthly
meeting of the Tampa Writers Alliance (TWA) Wednesday, November 7. Her topic:
"Book Reviewing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." The public is
invited to the presentation at 7 p.m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900
N. Ashley Ave., Tampa.
In addition to book reviewing and editorial writing, Egner edits a weekly
opinion page called SaturdayForum at The Tribune, where she has been a reporter
and editor since 1981. She won first place for editorial writing in the Florida
Society of Newspaper Editors 2001 contest and is a past winner of the Florida
Medical Association’s top prize for editorial writing on health care issues.
Prior to joining The Tribune, the Minnesota native served brief stints at The
St. Petersburg Times, The Washington Post, The Minneapolis Star, The Little
Falls (MN) Daily Transcript, The Minnesota Daily, and The Lakefield (MN)
Standard. Active in community service, Egner is a member of this year’s
Leadership Florida, Class XX; serves on the board of directors of Alpha House, a
not-for-profit Tampa shelter for homeless pregnant women; on the corporate
advisory board of the Hillsborough Literacy Council; and as an elder and chair
of the Witness & Service Committee at Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church in
Tampa, where she organized the building of a house in 2001 under the auspices of
Habitat for Humanity.
Egner is the single mother of two daughters and, in her spare time, enjoys
bicycling, canoeing, whitewater rafting, reading, writing, and online
communicating with family and friends across the world.
The Tampa Writers Alliance serves writers of all genres and levels. In
addition to its regular monthly meetings, the group sponsors an annual writing
contest, as well as poetry and critique workshops, and publishes a monthly
newsletter and an annual anthology. For more information, call or email TWA’s
president, M. Lark Underwood of Tampa, (813) 908-3095,
