Carl Hiaasen


Carl Hiaasen is an American writer, author and journalist. A long-time columnist for the Miami Herald and Tribune Content Agency, Hiaasen has also written more than 20 novels which can generally be classified as humorous crime fiction and often feature themes of environmentalism and political corruption in his native Florida. He began his career as a news reporter and by the late 1970s had begun writing novels in his spare time. In 2002, he also started publishing books for young readers. Two of his novels have been made into feature films.

Early life and education

Hiaasen was born in 1953 and raised in Plantation, Florida, then a rural suburb of Fort Lauderdale. He was the first of four children born to Odel and Patricia Hiaasen. He has Norwegian and Irish ancestry. He started writing at age six when his father bought him a typewriter for Christmas After graduating from Plantation High School in 1970, he entered Emory University, where he contributed satirical humor columns to the student-run newspaper The Emory Wheel. In 1972, he transferred to the University of Florida, where he wrote for The Independent Florida Alligator. Hiaasen graduated in 1974 with a degree in journalism.

Journalism

He was a reporter at Cocoa Today for two years before being hired in 1976 by the Miami Herald, where he worked for the city desk, Sunday magazine and award-winning investigative team. Since 1985 Hiaasen has been a regular columnist for the newspaper. His columns have been collected in three published volumes, Kick Ass, Paradise Screwed and Dance of the Reptiles, all edited by Diane Stevenson.
His only brother Rob Hiaasen, an editor and columnist at The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, was killed in a mass shooting at the newspaper's office on June 28, 2018. Carl Hiaasen's 1991 novel Native Tongue'' bears the dedication "For my brother Rob."

Novelist

After becoming a reporter, Hiaasen began writing novels in his spare time. The first three were co-authored with his friend and fellow journalist William Montalbano: Powder Burn, Trap Line, and A Death in China. His first solo novel, Tourist Season, featured a group of ragged eco-warriors who kidnap the Orange Bowl Queen in Miami. The book's main character was whimsically memorialized by Jimmy Buffett in a song called "The Ballad of Skip Wiley," which appeared on his Barometer Soup album.
In all, nineteen of Hiaasen's novels and nonfiction books have been on the New York Times Best Seller lists. His work has been translated into 34 languages.
His first venture into writing for younger readers was the 2002 novel Hoot, which was named a Newbery Medal honor book. It was adapted as a 2006 film of the same name. The movie was written and directed by Wil Shriner. Jimmy Buffett provided songs for the soundtrack, and appeared in the role of Mr. Ryan, a middle-school teacher.
Hiaasen's subsequent children's novels were Flush, Scat; Chomp and, Skink-- No Surrender, which introduces one of his most popular adult characters to teen readers. In 2014, Skink was long-listed for a National Book Award in Young People's Literature. All of Hiaasen's books for young readers feature environmental themes, eccentric casts and adventure-filled plots. His newest, Squirm, which is set in Florida and Montana, was published in the fall of 2018 and opened at #4 on the New York Times bestseller list for middle-grade novels.
His most recent novel for adults, Razor Girl, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 2016, and opened at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. In England it was short-listed for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse award for comic fiction. His new novel, Squeeze Me, will be published in August 2020.
Hiaasen's most recent nonfiction work is Assume the Worst: The Graduation Speech You'll Never Hear, which was published in April 2018 and illustrated by Roz Chast, who is well-known for her cartoons in the New Yorker magazine.
During the 1990s Hiaasen co-wrote the lyrics of three songs with his good friend and famed L.A. rocker, the late Warren Zevon. "Rottweiler Blues" and "Seminole Bingo" appeared on Zevon's Mutineer album in 1995. The third song they wrote together, "Basket Case," was done in conjunction with Hiaasen's novel of the same name, and appeared in 2001 on Zevon's album My Ride's Here.

Works

Fiction

Adult fiction

With William Montalbano
;Journalist
;Writer