[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.

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.

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.

"[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".

"[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.