Alcestis in the Underworld: Poems

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 poets personal experience of civic duty: her life in Moscow as a U.S. diplomat after growing up in then-USSR Ukraine. Praise for Nina Murrays Minimize ConsideredThese poems--this poet--bear the unmistakable stamp of the real thing. -- Roy Scheele author of The Sledders and A Far AllegianceReading Nina Murrays 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