How can you write about the unimaginable?
In The Sound of Burning: A Mother, a Daughter, a Murder, forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press on October 1, 2026, Writing alum Kristi D. Osorio '17 examines the cultural obsession with true crime through a personal lens. The author’s debut opens with then-fifteen-year-old Osorio in her bedroom, the night her mother murdered her grandmother. Through a blend of memoir and criticism, Osoiro brings a human perspective to an often-sensationalized narrative, reclaiming her own “coming of age in the shadows of violence.”
“My time at Columbia gave me the courage to pursue writing this difficult story,” Osorio shared. “It is wild to think that some of the writing in the final version of the book actually began as workshop submissions ten years ago in Dodge Hall. I hope that my work reflects the invaluable lessons I learned about writing (and about life!) from my professors in the program."
In praise of The Sound of Burning, Sarah Perry, author of After the Eclipse, said: “Osorio writes loss and terror with clear, lucid prose, deftly avoiding the sensationalism that plagues the true crime genre. She critiques our thirst for violent narratives, from Law & Order: SVU to the Scream franchise, not merely from the position of the oft-exploited survivor-witness, but from the vantage point of a professor and scholar … This book is a triumph—a lasting tribute to a woman lost too soon and a family forever altered.”
Kristi Osorio won the 2023 Indiana Review Creative Nonfiction Prize, selected by Camonghne Felix, and the Sonora Review “Mercy” Contest in Nonfiction, selected by Maggie Nelson. Her work has previously appeared in The Rumpus, Teachers & Writers Magazine, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Texas.
Osorio will be reading at two events in New York: on November 5, 2026, she will be at The Burren Public House (owned by Meghan Maguire Dahn '14) in the Bronx, and on November 6, she will read at Black Spring Books (owned by Simona Blat '16) with poetry alums Avia Tadmor '16 and Isabella DeSendi '17. You can also catch her at Texas Tech University on Thursday October 15, 2026, at 5:30 PM.
