By Khalida Sarwari
Peggy Conaway, the author of five books who played a vital role in a local documentary and development of an app, was presented recently with the Pat O’Laughlin Contribution to Literature Award.
A local historian and retired director of Los Gatos Public Library, Conaway was recognized at the Oct. 7 opening reception for the first-ever Los Gatos-Listowel Writers’ Festival.
She described her reaction to learning she had won the award as one of surprise and delight.
“It was quite unexpected,” she said. “There’s a great emphasis on fiction and poetry, and I don’t write either one of those. I was really pleased because I think that people do value local history, but it doesn’t get the same headlines that fiction often gets.”
Conaway, who is of Irish descent and calls Santa Cruz home, attended the ceremony with her husband, Chuck Bergtold. The event was held at the New Museum Los Gatos. Her prize was a bronze medallion designed and created by Jerry Smith, a sculptor and former Saratoga mayor, state senator and appellate judge.
“Right now it’s sitting on a table in my living room,” she said. “I will treasure it.”
Conaway is the author of five photo histories about Los Gatos, published between 2004 and 2015: “Images of America: Los Gatos,” “Los Gatos Generations,” “Images of Modern America,” “The Railroads of Los Gatos” and “Legendary Locals of Los Gatos.” The latter two books were co-authored with Edward Kelley and Stephanie Ross Mathews, respectively.
Winning the award “meant that all the work I’d been doing for the last 12 years was being recognized,” said Conaway. “It’s always nice to get recognized, and I appreciate the connection with Ireland.”
Aside from writing, Conaway is credited with establishing the Los Gatos Library and Museum History Project, a database of more than 6,000 historic photographs; providing research and photos for the 2005 documentary film, “Los Gatos: Then and Now;” and most recently, researching and writing the text for an app that provides virtual self-guided tours of historic Los Gatos.
Retired since 2010, Conaway has no trouble keeping herself busy. Her latest venture is a biography on Ruth Comfort Mitchell, a writer from Los Gatos who was reviewed in the New York Times, said Conaway.
“She’s an underappreciated local author, and I think there’s a lot to say about her,” she said.
The award is named after Pat O’Laughlin, a former trial attorney and Los Gatos mayor with a love of writing and literature who died in 2008. O’Laughlin had an active role in the town’s civic sector in the early 1990s, serving as mayor in 1995, and is credited with developing the sister city relationship between Los Gatos and Listowel, a town in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1994. Because a large number of published writers and journalists hail from the region, Listowel is described by some as the “literary capital of Ireland.”
Sponsored by the nonprofit group Irish Culture Bay Area and co-founded by Catherine Barry, the festival was patterned after the internationally acclaimed Listowel Writers’ Week that’s been held annually since 1970. More than 15 Irish writers and poets, along with local writers and poets, participated in the festival, which featured literary presentations, hands-on workshops, an Irish art exhibit, an outdoor concert, Irish dance classes and a documentary screening. The festival took place Oct. 6-9 at various locations in downtown Los Gatos.
