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, the1lark@hotmail.com.