Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

MFA Creative Writing Thesis (Campus Access)

Degree Type

MFA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

English

Committee Chair

Mark Brazaitis

Committee Co-Chair

Omar Yacoub

Committee Member

Nathalie Singh-Corcoran

Abstract

Set Me Apart from My Sins as the East is Set Apart from the West follows the characters Ilsur and Ilnara, twins born in Uzbekistan in 1999 but raised in America. The story takes place from 2018-2023. Their father was religious; and the Karimov regime considered him to be an extremist and shot him without a trial, so to escape, their mother coordinated a marriage on a dating website with an American man named Richard Hubbard. The twins spend their adolescence in their stepdad’s house. While Ilsur becomes increasingly religiously devout and morally rigid, Ilnara moves in the opposite direction, embracing intellectual freedom and eventually a sexual relationship with a fellow philosophy student named Kyle. Ilsur returns first to Turkey then to Uzbekistan and finds himself in the middle of a poppy drug ring running off the Uzbek-Afghan border. Ilnara pursues a career of stand up comedy in New York City. Love, naturally, complicates both of their lives.

Download

Share

COinS