PEOPLE
NEW YORK — John Prine is in stable condition after being placed on a ventilator while being treated for COVID-19-type symptoms, his wife, Fiona Whelan Prine said Monday.
The singer-songwriter’s family said Sunday that Prine was critically ill. Fiona Prine’s message Monday on social media, suggested his condition had improved overnight. Prine remains hospitalized.
“Please continue to send your amazing love and prayers,” she said on Twitter. “Sing his songs. Stay home and wash hands. John loves you. I love you.”
News that Prine’s health was in jeopardy provoked an outpouring of affection for Prine. Joan Baez responded with a video of her playing his song “Hello In There” from her kitchen.
Fiona Prine earlier in March tested positive for coronavirus and said the couple was quarantined and isolated from each other. Fiona Prine, who is also Prine’s manager, said Monday that she has recovered from COVD-19.
The 73-year-old Prine, one of the most influential in folk and country music, has twice fought cancer. Most recently, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013 and had part of a lung removed. The surgeries affected his voice but Prine continued to make music and to tour. Before the onset of the virus, Prine had shows scheduled in May and a summer tour planned.
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CHICAGO — Celebrity chef Rick Bayless has launched an effort to help restaurant workers who have been laid off during the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the award-winning Chicago chef’s restaurants that’s currently closed, Frontera Grill, will host an operation paying laid-off workers to make 30-pound boxes of food, including produce, bread and meat. The boxes will be available for pickup at restaurants throughout the city.
“This project can touch the lives of many thousand displaced workers,” Bayless said in a news release.
The plan is to process 800 boxes each week. The effort is being funded by a $250,000 anonymous gift in partnership with US Foods, a Rosemont-based food distributor.
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NEW YORK — The Yemeni-American poet Threa Almontaser has won the Walt Whitman Award for best first book. Almontaser’s “The Wild Fox of Yemen” comes out in April 2021.
Presented by the Academy of American Poets, the award includes a six-week residency in Umbria, Italy, and $5,000. In addition, the academy will purchase hundreds of copies of her book and distribute them to members.
“The spirit of Whitman lives in these poems that sing and celebrate a vibrant, rebellious body with all its physical and spiritual entanglements,” award judge Harryette Mullen said in a statement.
The Whitman award was established in 1975 to champion emerging poets. Previous winners include Jenny Xie, Judy Jordan and Chris Llewellyn.
By Associated Press
