Khrysgiana Pineda attended New York University where she completed her double major in Performance Studies with Tisch School of the Arts and Journalism with the Arthur J. Carter Institute. She was published by the New York Times as a college freshman and wrote the cover story for Vivez Magazine's summer 2018 issue. She interned at Oxford University Press, among various publishing companies and magazines. She was editor for the Books and Entertainment column at NYU's Washington Square News and was elected Publicity Director for the Tisch Student Council during her college career. Currently, she is interning at USA Today, working at a film start-up, and completing her first Young Adult fiction novel.

Title of Capstone Project

Writing a YA Novel

Description of Capstone Project

August J. Blithe & The Monster of Elements, the first book in a trilogy, is a reshaping of modern society set in semi-post apocalyptic Earth. This telling of a war of worlds navigates climate change, ignorance and prejudice, and the performance of technology. In a battle between good and evil in a universe that is not as black and white as it may appear, August Blithe must deconstruct the foundations of his universe, along with the discrepancies of his past, in order to face the Monster of Elements in a battle for justice. Beginning in Utopia, the oppressive capital of the Bubble, this novel unravels the performance of the self through a queering of the world we live in. A genetically enhanced humankind grapples with labor capitalism, cyborg identities, and injustice amidst the destructive powers of war and monsters.