 | |
| Author | Jay Hopler |
|---|---|
| Publisher | McSweeney's |
Publication date | June 7, 2022 |
| Pages | 63 |
| ISBN | 978-1952119378 |
| Preceded by | The Abridged History of Rainfall |
Still Life is a 2022 poetry collection by Jay Hopler. [1] It was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry. [2] [3]
In 2017, Hopler was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer; he was told that he had only two years to live, after which he challenged himself "to write a book in twenty-four months." [4] From then on, as he lived with his condition, he began writing the poems that would be collected in Still Life; his wife, Kimberly Johnson, would also write her own poetry collection, Fatal, about the diagnosis, which would also be released in 2022. [5]
In three sections, the poems in Still Life address Hopler's diagnosis, his Puerto Rican heritage, and other topics including a "duet" with Johnny Cash and various allusions to animals. The book ends with a self-obituary. Hopler passed in 2022 one week after the book's publication. In The Rumpus that November, Johnson wrote:
"Even before, but pronouncedly after, Jay's diagnosis, he and I spoke often about what it means to write a last book, to produce a poetic artifact that endures beyond the self. What poetry can offer in the way of immortality. And what it can't." [5]
Time included the book in their list of 100 must-reads for 2022, stating that "In the wake of a terminal cancer diagnosis, poet Jay Hopler pondered his own mortality with wit, searing insight, and a clear-eyed sense of courage". [6]
Critics admired Hopler's reflections on mortality laden with humor. [7] [8] River Mouth Review observed the book's duality: "Still Life is a disconcerting book in the same way memorial services can be disconcerting: mourners go from making crass, perhaps even cruel jokes in each other’s ears to breaking down in tears and locking themselves in the restroom." [9] Blackbird similarly said that "Hopler’s work has always been marked by self-deprecating humor—a lamentation of a tortured existence and a resentment for having been born at all—and this characteristic pinnacles in Still Life." [10] Poetry International Online said "The book seems to be both a representation of all the moving parts of the dying, as well as an antithesis to how we usually converse about death, namely a dying person." [11] The Rumpus concluded, "What else can I feel but humility and admiration for these poems, which grieve and celebrate a life with so much care?" [12]
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