During my three years in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, I have written and published eleven short stories. These stories reflect my growth as a writer and, more specifically, the tremendous development I have seen in my work as a result of the program. These stories include many pieces that began as assignments for one or another required class.
In this time, my focus as a writer has become attuned to the Gothic, the grotesque, and the abject. Furthermore, I am perpetually interrogating my positionality as a white, queer woman in the academy and in our Western culture; I aim for these stories to bolster that interrogation and engage with dialogues of Otherness, intersectional identities, systematic oppression and capitalism’s relationship to these realities. The collection includes stories ranging in content from a silent boy’s presumed ownership of the Other to an investigation of Derrida’s conceptualized “animal” via a domesticated chimpanzee. The collection seeks to implicate reader in the construction of dualities that necessitate hierarchal dichotomies; it does so by cozying up to ugly folks doing ugly things but hoping you love them anyways.
","abstract_html":"<p>During my three years in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, I have written and published eleven short stories. These stories reflect my growth as a writer and, more specifically, the tremendous development I have seen in my work as a result of the program. These stories include many pieces that began as assignments for one or another required class.</p> <p>In this time, my focus as a writer has become attuned to the Gothic, the grotesque, and the abject. Furthermore, I am perpetually interrogating my positionality as a white, queer woman in the academy and in our Western culture; I aim for these stories to bolster that interrogation and engage with dialogues of Otherness, intersectional identities, systematic oppression and capitalism’s relationship to these realities. The collection includes stories ranging in content from a silent boy’s presumed ownership of the Other to an investigation of Derrida’s conceptualized “animal” via a domesticated chimpanzee. The collection seeks to implicate reader in the construction of dualities that necessitate hierarchal dichotomies; it does so by cozying up to ugly folks doing ugly things but hoping you love them anyways.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Miller, Kayla"],"institution":"University of Nevada, Las Vegas","degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts (MFA)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Maile Chapman","Douglas Unger","Megan Becker","Lynn Comella"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:23:59Z","subjects":["Creative Writing","English Language and Literature"],"languages":["English"],"rights":["IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2710"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2710","href":"https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2710","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.34917/9112145","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Maile Chapman","Douglas Unger","Megan Becker","Lynn Comella"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Miller, Kayla"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2030-05-15T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Nevada, Las Vegas"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts (MFA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Creative Writing","English Language and Literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.34917/9112145","https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2710","https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/context/thesesdissertations/article/3711/viewcontent/Miller_unlv_0506M_12166.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["During my three years in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, I have written and published eleven short stories. These stories reflect my growth as a writer and, more specifically, the tremendous development I have seen in my work as a result of the program. These stories include many pieces that began as assignments for one or another required class.
In this time, my focus as a writer has become attuned to the Gothic, the grotesque, and the abject. Furthermore, I am perpetually interrogating my positionality as a white, queer woman in the academy and in our Western culture; I aim for these stories to bolster that interrogation and engage with dialogues of Otherness, intersectional identities, systematic oppression and capitalism’s relationship to these realities. The collection includes stories ranging in content from a silent boy’s presumed ownership of the Other to an investigation of Derrida’s conceptualized “animal” via a domesticated chimpanzee. The collection seeks to implicate reader in the construction of dualities that necessitate hierarchal dichotomies; it does so by cozying up to ugly folks doing ugly things but hoping you love them anyways.
"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Of Wolves & Thieves: A Love Story"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Maile Chapman","Douglas Unger","Megan Becker","Lynn Comella"],"dc:creator":["Miller, Kayla"],"dc:date.available":["2030-05-15T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["During my three years in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, I have written and published eleven short stories. These stories reflect my growth as a writer and, more specifically, the tremendous development I have seen in my work as a result of the program. These stories include many pieces that began as assignments for one or another required class.
In this time, my focus as a writer has become attuned to the Gothic, the grotesque, and the abject. Furthermore, I am perpetually interrogating my positionality as a white, queer woman in the academy and in our Western culture; I aim for these stories to bolster that interrogation and engage with dialogues of Otherness, intersectional identities, systematic oppression and capitalism’s relationship to these realities. The collection includes stories ranging in content from a silent boy’s presumed ownership of the Other to an investigation of Derrida’s conceptualized “animal” via a domesticated chimpanzee. The collection seeks to implicate reader in the construction of dualities that necessitate hierarchal dichotomies; it does so by cozying up to ugly folks doing ugly things but hoping you love them anyways.
"],"dc:format":["pdf"],"dc:identifier":["10.34917/9112145","https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2710","https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/context/thesesdissertations/article/3711/viewcontent/Miller_unlv_0506M_12166.pdf"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:publisher":["University of Nevada, Las Vegas"],"dc:rights":["IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["Creative Writing","English Language and Literature"],"dc:title":["Of Wolves & Thieves: A Love Story"],"dc:type":["Text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Fine Arts (MFA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:23:59Z"}