Alua Arthur

Teacher, New York Times Bestselling Author, Speaker, Death Doula, Seeker.

Joyful, hilarious, effervescent, brilliant and deeply wise.”

—Glennon Doyle, on Alua Arthur

As the most visible death doula working in America today, Alua Arthur is a New York Times Bestselling author, a seeker, a “recovering” attorney, and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization.  She has spent thousands of hours with folks as they contemplate their mortality when regrets, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally revealed aloud.

Her TED Talk titled, “Why thinking about death helps you live a better life” went online in July 2023, and has already received 1.5 million views. A frequent guest on TV and radio, Alua has been featured on CBS’s The Doctors and in Disney’s “Limitless” docu-series with Chris Hemsworth, as well as in national print media outlets, such as Vogue, InStyle, the Los Angeles Times, The Cut, The New Yorker, and the New York Times.

Alua’s journey to death work started when her family fled a murderous coup d’etat in Ghana in the ‘80s – a time of chaos and fear that dramatically impacted her life and influenced her restless, peripatetic spirit.  Every aspect of Alua’s fascinating life comes together in Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life By Getting Real About The End, her raw, no holds barred, honest, and frequently hilarious New York Times Bestselling Memoir poetically crafted to share her powerful message with people all around the world. Her story is a deeply soul-transformative story that encourages us to think about the often-taboo subject of our own mortality – and how embracing this reality can help us lead better, more fulfilling lives.

About

Press/Media

Featured In

  • The New York Times
  • Vogue
  • Refinery29
  • Medium
  • CNN
  • InStyle
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Kinfolk
  • The Doctors

A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America's most visible death doula.

A New York Times Bestseller!

briefly perfectly human

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  • "Alua Arthur's work as a death doula has led her to have a truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world. Finally she's offering that perspective to the rest of us, in Briefly Perfectly Human. And it's about time. There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life."

    — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways”

  • "This book is everything I admire about Alua's work. She drapes the reaper in sparkles and sunsets, allowing you to stare down mortality's harshest truths swaddled in safety, joy, and the dignity of unsparing honesty."

    — Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory