Liam Blackford’s The Stud
Reproduction

Liam Blackford’s ‘dark camp’ debut novel The Stud — blurbed by Slavoj Žižek and Chris Kraus, among others — tackles one of the thorniest questions of our time: the birthrate. Why has fertility taken such a hit across the world, and what can anyone do about it?

In The Stud, the hyperliberal breakaway Republic of Western Australia faces a catastrophic birthrate collapse. The progressive state rewrites the rules of intimacy. Its boldest policy: “mother-leader-father-labourer” households, where multiple women employ a single man to father and raise their children. This works at first. Then it doesn’t.

Join author Liam Blackford, demographer Paul Morland, and love-and-birthrate advice columnist (and editor at Works in Progress) Aria Schrecker as we confront, by tracing collapsing graphs and reading post-transgressive literature, perhaps the most urgent question of our time: if (and how) we may be able to go on.

Book offer: the combined admission and book bundle offers £6 off The Stud‘s RRP (£10.99 instead of £16.66). Attendees will be able to purchase further copies at the event at £4 off the RRP ( £12.99 instead of £16.99).