Umar Turaki's writing has been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Scholarship, longlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, and has won the AFREADA Photo-Story Competition. Umar's short films have screened in numerous festivals, and his work in television both as a writer and director has been broadcast on various stations.  Umar lives in Kelowna, British Columbia with his wife and daughter, where he is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at UBC Okanangan.

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL THING TO BEHOLD, is literary, dystopian, and in this age of COVID, all too plausible. An African village is cut off from the world when a mysterious illness called the Grey spreads rapidly, affecting the villagers’ eyes and minds, leaving many dead.With the village surrounded by military blockades, a family of estranged siblings are forced to re-evaluate their relationships when they come face-to-face with an unstoppable evil.