When the idea for Slice was first conceived in 2005, we were a team of three ladies-two publishers and our savvy art director, Amy Sly-working away to create something bigger than ourselves. Fast forward to 2009: Slice has become that something bigger.

Theme: Villains These stories, spun from the minds of emerging and established writers, will prompt you to look over your shoulder before turning the page and perhaps conjure the villains that lurk within the shadows of your own imagination.

It's our business to hand you lies, though not the malicious kind. The fiction within these pages is stitched together with some of the most inventive lies we've ever encountered. And this doesn't mean that the stories border on absurd, with extraordinary creatures soaring through the air.

A collection of interviews, poetry, and prose that will rustle even the most stoic imagination. You'll meet the original "wild things" that inspired Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book (hint: they're from Brooklyn), discover breakout novelist Karen Russell's alligator-wrestling family, and peek into the world of post-apocalyptic vampires created by bestselling author Justin Cronin.