In Greek myth, Alcestis descends to the underworld in place of her husband, a king, so that he may continue to rule the living. After she returns, she and her family live-presumably­-happily ever after. But she has seen and learned things no one else knows. Alcestis in the Underworld articulates a poet's personal experience of civic duty: her life in Moscow as a U.S. diplomat, after growing up in then-USSR Ukraine. Praise for Nina Murray's Minimize Considered "These poems-this poet-bear the unmistakable stamp of the real thing." - Roy Scheele, author of The Sledders and A Far Allegiance "Reading Nina Murray's work is, in some ineffable way, like turning the pages of your own life. It leaves you in greater harmony with the world and more deeply in touch with its infinite possibilities.… Beautiful writing, a singular book of poems, rendered in precise, crisp language yet, marvellously, managing to produce a powerful visceral, vivid, heart-bound, near-inarticulable impression." - Mikhail Iossel, author of Every Hunter Wants to Know and contributing writer New Yorker