Maria Andrade teaches literature at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She is the author of the novella Elegía para una insomne (Cuarto Propio, 2007), which was translated into Italian (Coppolla Editore, 2009), and the short story collection Los inspectores (Cuarto Propio, 2009). Her fiction and poetry have appeared in literary magazines such as Hofstra Hispanic Review, Galerna, Hybrido Magazine, and Hispanic Culture Review. The current chapbook also exists in a Spanish version, Grafía, published by LaJaula Ediciones (2017).
inscription
i scratch the board with my nails,
i scrawl,
i tear.
the lead of my pencil breaks the piece of paper.
held by my tight fingers,
the pencil traces its difficult path,
and it tortures the page.
letters don’t flow,
my hand stalls,
the tip of the pencil splinters.