"Starving Art" published by Spotlong Review!

My creative nonfiction flash piece explores art, animal, and icon; the sacred and sacrilege.

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Montage created by author Eleni Vlachos on Adobe Express

Starving Art was published in The Spotlong Review. You can read it here.

As most writers know, the journey from idea to publication is often a long one with many boulders littering a trail of stubbed toes and hurt feelings. Rejection rates from literary journals are high (many only have a 1% acceptance rate, several less). Editors (and readers) must choose between thousands of submissions. Beyond talent, it is somewhat of a numbers game.

Such is the reality of the literary journal publishing world, that we writers attempt to translate rejections, we have wiki sites dedicated to decoding our rejections (“positive” or “standard”?) and can even join a Rejection Competition (I did). I set my goal to 100 rejections for 2026, with the hope of at least a few acceptances, too.

Given these dire stats, receiving an acceptance while I was away at my self-imposed one-week writing retreat on the isle of Spetses—a time I devoted to writing—was perfect timing. I felt validated for taking myself and my work seriously.

The Spotlong Review, founded in 2021, is a New York- and Philadelphia-based literary journal dedicated to championing innovative work that packs a punch, questions conventional mores, and, most of all, explores human connection from surprising angles.

Read the other authors in Issue XIII

As with most submissions, there were many rejections for Starving Art. I’ll share my publication’s vitals below the post.

Author (me!) on Tzavella street, the opening site of Starving Art, in the Exarchia neighborhood. Tzavella is a sacred and sacrilege street-art filled space.

An excerpt:

Paul and I walked down Tzavella street in Athens’ anarchist neighborhood, its walls a discourse of colors in urban intercommunication from the bumblebee yellows and blacks of AEK, the local football club, to the pastels of Alex Grigoropoulos, a fifteen-year old killed by police here in 2008. We spoke of the whys and whats of art, questions as ancient as Greece.

This piece began after a friend K— from Seattle texted me the news about the Denmark pig exhibit. At the same time, the icon art controversy erupted here in Greece. Over drinks in Exarchia, I had a conversation with my friend D— about both exhibits. That night, I composed the original piece in a flurry (a fast hurry).

This short piece went through several edits, but I tried to keep it as tight and sparse as possible. The form also needed to starve, I felt.

The artist shouldn’t speak. (I aspire to this, but will blather on upon the subtlest hints of request.) For anyone interested in further reading, you can check out Toronto Pig Save and Regan Russell.

And now, the stats. 🔢

Starving is now an art, though, and in fact, it eats art. Starving contains art, if you look closely (its letters are jumbled). Look very closely, because the art is growing thinner by the moment from its lack of nutrients. Starving artists, nothing new.

Stats for Starving Art 🤓

Unlike a few other pieces that I’ve been working on (and off) for several years, I began the first draft of Starving Art only a year ago. It also went through several revisions and titles including Starving is Not a Game and Starving a Game).

Here was its journey:

• Began draft in March 2025

• Submitted to 34 publications

• Rejected by 21 publications

• Received positive (“tiered”) rejections from 4 publications

• Withdrew (upon acceptance) from 11 publications

Some of the rejections were of previous iterations. I reworked the piece several times before it was accepted.

In contrast, a recent piece (Understanding Birdsong) I submitted to five publications. It was rejected once then accepted. But I had been working (sporadically) on the piece for years.

Outrage is rage out of art, seething red faces and beating hearts. Not just religion: A vegan finding brilliance in a cruel act. Art as sacrifice. Bring me your hot faces, your pounding fists, your revocation of vegan clubs. But: Art is part gimmick. So is its defacement.

Big thanks to my writing friend Marisa for her critique that helped me improve the piece, and of course my friends K— and D—. Thank you so much for reading and hearting this post (if you liked it!).

Read Starving Art.

📹 Bonus: 28 second trailer for Starving Art complete with bouzouki and church bells.

Have you had similar publication journeys? How do you manage rejections? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.