Sinful Galveston: Carolyn Osborn at BookPeople

Galveston, Texas, has a pretty exciting past: its long list of state firsts (first post office, first opera house, first telephone, first bakery, first insurance company, first Masonic Order chapter); the devastating hurricane of 1900; the sin city days of gambling, prohibited liquor, and prostitution; the recent proliferation of adorable gift shops. 1950s Galveston—back when it still had a reputation for wildness—is the setting of Austin writer Carolyn Osborn’s new novel, Uncertain Ground (Wings Press), which she’ll be reading from this Sunday at BookPeople.

In Osborn’s tale, a small-town Texas girl named Celia and her rowdy cowboy cousin visit the island in the summer of 1953, and Galveston is not merely a backdrop; it’s a presence that permeates almost every aspect of the story. Galveston’s imminent transition into a tamer era parallels Celia’s growing maturity, and Osborn delicately shows how her protagonist’s sensibilities shift during her month-long stay, through her dalliances with boys and her relationship with an artist who carries a heavy secret.

Uncertain Ground is Osborn’s first novel, but she’s published short stories that have been awarded prizes by P.E.N. and the Texas Institute of Letters, and her story “The Grands” was included in Prize Stories 1990: The O. Henry Awards. She was also one of the founders of the Texas Book Festival. To see this Austin woman of letters in person, be at BookPeople at 7 p.m. Sunday. Copies of Uncertain Ground will be hot off the presses; it officially comes out Saturday.