From the earliest cave paintings to modern-day novels, from poetry to speeches and impassioned letters to music lyrics, we have used words and symbols to express our inner thoughts, interpret our ...

The distant moon Pandora from James Cameron’s Avatar films is a feast of sci-fi world-building. Dragonlike creatures prowl the skies. Supersmart whalelike beasts write poetry under the sea. And a ...

When words fail them, creative writers imagine entirely new ones. Author Patti Callahan Henry examines fictional language, from the words of Tolkien to her own. Our editors and experts handpick every ...