Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen (/ˈhaɪ.əsɛn/; born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist, columnist, and novelist.

Carl 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 ChristmasAfter 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.

He was a reporter at Cocoa Today (Cocoa, Florida) for two years before being hired in 1976 by the Miami Herald, where he worked for the city desk, Sunday magazine and investigative team. Since 1985 Hiaasen has been a regular columnist for the newspaper. His columns have been collected in three published volumes, Kick Ass (1999), Paradise Screwed (2001) and Dance of the Reptiles (2014), all edited by Diane Stevenson.

In 2005, Hiaasen was the subject of a "60 Minutes" profile by Steve Kroft.

After becoming an investigative reporter, Hiaasen began writing novels in his spare time. His first three were co-authored with his friend and fellow journalist William Montalbano: Powder Burn (1981), Trap Line (1982), and A Death in China (1984). His first solo novel, Tourist Season (1986), 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." In all, eighteen of Hiaasen's novels and nonfiction books have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller lists. His work has been translated into 34 languages.

His first venture into writing for children was the 2002 novel Hoot, which was named a Newbery Medal honor book and was adapted as a 2006 film of the same name (starring Logan Lerman, Brie Larson and Luke Wilson). Hiaasen's subsequent children's novels were Flush; Scat; Chomp and, most recently, Skink-- No Surrender, which introduces one of his most popular adult characters to teen readers. All of his young-adult books feature environmental themes, eccentric casts and adventure-filled plots.

Hiaasen also co-wrote 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.

Hiaasen is also noted as the person who helped bring the young adult fantasy novel Eragon to the public. The book, written by Christopher Paolini, was self-published and self-promoted without much attention until it came to the notice of Hiaasen's wife, Fenia, in 2002, during a trip to Montana. Hiaasen immediately recommended the novel to one of his editors at the publishing house Alfred A. Knopf. The book went on to become an astounding success, marking the start of a series that sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

Hiaasen's most recent novel, Razor Girl, was published by Knopf in September 2016, and opened at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Fiction

Adult fiction

• Tourist Season (1986)
• Double Whammy (1987)
• Skin Tight (1989)
• Native Tongue (1991)
• Strip Tease (1993) (filmed in 1996 as Striptease by Andrew Bergman, starring Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds)
• Stormy Weather (1995)
• Naked Came the Manatee (1996) (A Mystery Thriller Parody with 12 other authors)
• Lucky You (1997)
• Sick Puppy (2000)
• Basket Case (2002)
• Skinny Dip (2004)
• Nature Girl (2006)
• Star Island (2010)
• Bad Monkey (2013)
• Razor Girl (2016)

With William Montalbano

• Powder Burn (1981)
• Trap Line (1982)
• A Death in China (1984)

Fiction for young readers

• Hoot (2002) (released as a movie in May 2006 by director Wil Shriner)
• Flush (2005)
• Scat (2009)
• Chomp (2012)
• Skink - No Surrender (2014) (young adult novel featuring a recurring hero from his adult fiction series)

Short stories

• "Tart of Darkness" (2003, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue)
• The Edible Exile (2013)

Non-fiction

• Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (1998)
• Kick Ass: Selected Columns (1999)
• Paradise Screwed: Selected Columns (2001)
• The Downhill Lie (2008)
• Dance of the Reptiles: Selected Columns (2014)

Collections

• A Carl Hiaasen (2000) (an audiobook set containing Tourist Season, Stormy Weather, and Strip Tease)

• 1980: National Headliners Award from Sigma Delta Chi.
• 1980: Heywood Broun Award from Newspaper Guild.
• 2004 : Damon Runyon Award from the Denver Press Club.
• 2010 : Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

• 2003 : Newbery Honor from the Association for Library Service to Children, for Hoot.
• 2005 : Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award, for Hoot.
• 2005 : Dagger Awards Nominee - Best Novel, for Skinny Dip.
• 2009 : Sélection prix Nouvel Obs et BibliObs du roman noir, for Croco-deal (Nature Girl).
• 2011 : Prix du Livre Environnement de la Fondation Veolia Environnement - Mention jeunesse, for Panthère (Scat).
• 2011 : Prix Enfantaisie du meilleur roman, for Panthère (Scat).
• 2012 : Prix Barnes & Noble du meilleur roman jeunesse, for Chomp.
• 2013 : Prix Science en toutes lettres from The Académie de Rouen, for Panthère (Scat).
• 2014 : National Book Award Longlist Selection - Young People's Literature, for Skink : No Surrender.