In this episode of Call to the Editor, fiction editor Femke van Son speaks with writer Laurence Klavan about his short story The Sleepwalker, published in the Winter 2025 issue of The Brussels Review. The conversation explores the story’s dystopian setting, its use of artificial intelligence as a tool of dehumanization, and Klavan’s deliberate engagement with older narrative forms such as soap opera, noir, and classical melodrama. Klavan reflects on his writing process, the transformation of longer works into shorter forms, and the tension between human intimacy and technological abstraction. The interview concludes with a broader discussion of artistic discipline, publishing cultures in Europe and the United States, and the importance of valuing the act of writing itself over commercial outcome.

Get the Winter 2025 issue at shop.thebrusselsreview.com. Use the code CallToTheEditor to get twenty-five percent off until the end of January. I would also like to thank our sponsor, the ACC, the Art and Creativity Consortium, the organization that supports publication of The Brussels Review and its wider cultural initiatives across Europe. If you are a creator, a writer, a small editor, a small publisher, or an organization dedicated to supporting the arts, you can connect with them and visit ArtCreCon.org to learn more and become a part of the cultural network.