Palindromes in English and Latin

Mark Saltveit is a stand-up comedian, writer, and palindromist based in Middlebury, Vermont. Saltveit's interest in wordplay goes back to his childhood, when he and his young brothers would discuss palindromes to stave off boredom during long family road trips. In his 20s, he began composing lengthy palindromes of his own. His first ("Resoled in Saratoga, riveting in a wide wale suit, I use law, Ed. I, wan, ignite virago, tar a snide loser.") is remarkable for its length, but took only a matter of hours to compose. In 1996, Saltveit founded The Palindromist, a biennial magazine devoted to palindromes and closely related forms of wordplay. He can be contacted at [email protected]

Michael Fontaine is associate professor of Classics and director of graduate studies at Cornell University. He has a Ph.D. from Brown University and has written widely on ancient Roman Comedy, specifically Plautus. His first book, Funny Words in Plautine Comedy was released by Oxford University Press in 2009. As a graduate student Michael spent a year in Rome on a Rotary Scholarship studying Latin with Fr. Reginald Foster.