When Jay Hopler received a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2017, he was told he had two years to live. He thought, “I have to write a book in twenty-four months.” We’ll hear two poems from that book today. Still Life, out in June from McSweeney’s, is a “violently funny but playfully serious fulfillment of what Arseny Tarkovsky called the fundamental purpose of art: a way to prepare for death, be it far in the future or very near at hand.” Poetry guest editor Srikanth Reddy takes over the helm of the podcast this week, and interviews both Hopler and renaissance scholar and poet Kimberly Johnson. As a literary couple, Hopler and Johnson have shared a life in art for many years, and Johnson’s new book, Fatal, traces her experiences since Hopler’s 2017 diagnosis. Out in May from Persea Books, Paisley Rekdal writes, “Fatal examines how we live poised between terror and delight, stasis and transformation, ever bewildered by how even the simplest objects and events can change everything in instant.” Despite the heavy subject matter, the conversation between Hopler, Johnson, and Reddy contains plenty of laughter.

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