Skip to main content

Photos: The 21st reading of John Gardner at the Pok-A-Dot

By Howard B. Owens

johngardnerreading2017.jpg

The 21st annual John Gardner Society gathering at the Pok-A-Dot to remember Batavia's most famous novelist at his favorite local restaurant brought people in from some distance this year. There were two people who drove in from Pennsylvania, two from Indiana, and one of Gardner's best friends, who drove up from Binghamton (playwright Jan Quackenbush). Among the travelers, a former student and a former dorm mate of Gardner's. First-timers to the reading also included a couple from Buffalo.

Reading in the top photo, Beth Buechler, who was one of Gardner's students in Binghamton and traveled to Batavia from Indiana.

johngardnerreading2017-2.jpg

johngardnerreading2017-3.jpg

Tracy Ford

johngardnerreading2017-4.jpg

Bill Kauffman

johngardnerreading2017-5.jpg

Terry Abrams, of Basom, reading, as he does every year, from "On Becoming a Novelist."

johngardnerreading2017-6.jpg

Norm Morford, a dormmate's of Gardner's while in college.

johngardnerreading2017-7.jpg

Helen Maier

johngardnerreading2017-8.jpg

johngardnerreading2017-9.jpg

Other readers included Byron Hoot, from Pennsylvania, Lucine Kauffman, Steve Lewandowski, JoNelle Toriseva, and John Maier.

Authentically Local