What an excruciating job it must have been for the folks at Holy Cow! Press, putting together this latest anthology. Sifting through hundreds of poems about loss, about death, about healing, looking for those that would resonate the most. All that pain, distilled. But such a lovely book is the result, from the graceful blue-and-green cover to the last page. "Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude" is the work of Holy Cow! publisher and founding editor Jim Perlman and poets Deborah Cooper, Mara Hart and Pamela Mittlefehldt.

You'll recognize some Minnesota names: Ethna McKiernan, Sheila Packa, Bill Holm. And some names from long ago or far away: Pablo Neruda, Rumi, May Sarton, Maxine Kumin. This is a collection of poems that help give meaning to our grief and remind us that we are not alone. Here is the start of McKiernan's "Potatoes":

"Someone is weeping in the kitchen. / It is my father, crying quietly / as he peels the dinner potatoes."

Also ...

• "I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman," a collection of poems by Jude Nutter of Edina, has been published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Nutter's earlier collection, "The Curator of Silence," won a Minnesota Book Award and the Ernest Sandeen Prize.

• Two walking guides -- one to the architecture of St. Paul's Summit Avenue and one to Minneapolis' lakes neighborhoods -- have been published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. The pocket-sized guides were written by Larry Millett, a former writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the author of many books.

• The summer lineup for the Library Foundation of Hennepin County's Talk of the Stacks program includes Alan Furst and Patricia Smith. Furst, a bestselling author of spy novels, including "Night Soldiers" and "The Spies of Warsaw," will speak at 7 p.m. June 25. Smith's poetry collection, "Blood Dazzler," was a finalist for the National Book Award. She'll speak at 7 p.m. July 30. Both talks will be at the Central Library downtown.

• Three books by Minnesota writers have been honored by the Society of Midland Authors. Louise Erdrich of Minneapolis won the children's fiction prize for "The Porcupine Year." Eric Dregni of Minneapolis was a finalist in the nonfiction category for his memoir about living in Norway, "In Cod We Trust." And Curtiss Anderson, formerly of Minnesota, was a finalist in biography for "Blueberry Summer: Growing Up at the Lake." The competition is open to authors who have strong ties to the Midwest.