Spineless Books is an independent publishing house founded 20-02-2002 with the publication of 2002: A Palindrome Story in 2002 Words (written by Nick Montfort and William Gillespie, with illustrations by Shelley Jackson)—a book Paul Braffort of the French writing collective Oulipo declared the longest literary palindrome ever written. Spineless Books publishes constrained writing, with an emphasis on the palindrome.
In May 2011, Spineless Books published the first book of palindromes on a single theme. Written by Jane Z. Smith and Barbara Thorburn, I’d Revere Verdi: Palindromes for the Serious Music Lover includes over seventy drawings, each with an original palindrome containing the names of classical composers (such as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Elgar, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Paganini, Puccini, Ravel, Rossini, Vivaldi), conductors (Solti, Ozawa), operas (Fidelio, The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca), or musical terms (adagio, arioso, baritone, coda, largo, partita, sarabande, sonatina, tenor). All together over 250 palindromes are embedded in the drawings.
True to its name, Spineless Books publishes electronic literature in addition to books. Its website hosts the hypertext novel The Unknown, (winner of the trAce/Alt-X International Hypertext Award (1998) as judged by Robert Coover), as well as the web-based serial fiction The Ed Report (awarded Honourable Mention in the same contest the following year). The Spineless Books website, designed to promote literary experimentation by encouraging writers and teachers, includes writing assignments and tools, including Deep Speed, a palindrome-authoring engine.
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