Palindrome Prize Winners Announced in Oregon

The first annual Symmys awards, honoring achievement in the creation of palindromes, were handed out on Sunday in Portland, Ore. The panel of celebrity judges included the singer Weird Al Yankovic and Will Shortz, The New York Times crossword editor.

Jon Agee won in the short palindrome category, for the following:

An igloo costs a lot, Ed!

Amen. One made to last! So cool, Gina!

Martin Clear won the award for long palindromes, a category whose length requirement makes comprehensibility even more difficult. The winning entry:

“Traci, to regard nine men in drag,” Eric (in a play or an ironic art spot) warned, “I am not so bad.”

“I’d never even seen knees … never even did a Boston maiden raw,” tops Traci, “nor in a royal panic. I regard nine men in drag â€" erotic art.”

Mr. Clear also won the poetry ctegory, tying for first place with Anne Tenna.

The word unit category â€" in which the entire words, not the individual letters, must read the same forward and backward â€" had the most satisfyingly coherent finalists. Aric Maddux won for his entry: “You swallow pills for anxious days and nights, and days, anxious for pills, swallow you.” John Connett took second place: “Fishing for excuses No need. You need no excuses for fishing.”

Many of the contestants are veterans of the craft. Mr. Agee, for instance, is the author of four books of palindromes. But the Symmys site says that Mr. Maddux’s winning entry was “the first palindrome he ever wrote.”