National Writers Series Presents - Alua Arthur

Join NationalWriters Series for an inspiring conversation with New York Times bestselling and author AluaArthur. Arthur’s deeply transformative memoir Briefly PerfectlyHuman: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End, reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling, and authentic lives.

For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading “death doula,” she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.

Warm, generous, and funny, Arthur supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air and her clients become deeply contemplative.

They want to say aloud to her their aching, unfinished business— regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities. When this happens, Arthur focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.

Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmer on the page. Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.”

Praised by author Jodi Picoult (Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways) who called it “a truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world. There is no one I’d trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life.”