Carl Hiaasen (pronounced /ˈhaɪəsɛn/) (born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist and novelist.
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Biography
Born and raised in Plantation, Florida, (near Fort Lauderdale) of Norwegian [1] heritage, Carl was the first of four children and the son of a lawyer, Odel, and teacher, Patricia. He married Connie Lyford just after high-school graduation and entered Emory University in 1970, where he contributed numerous satiric pieces to the school newspaper, The Emory Wheel. In 1972 he transferred to the University of Florida, graduating in 1974 with a degree in journalism. Carl and Connie divorced in 1996, and he married Fenia Clizer in 1999. He has one son from his first marriage and another from his second. After two years as a reporter for Cocoa Today out of Cocoa, Florida, he joined the Miami Herald in 1976, where he currently (as of 2007) works. From 1979 he turned to investigative journalism, concentrating on construction and property development, exposing schemes to destroy Florida's natural beauty for the sake of profit; several of his novels have plots based around such schemes. Since 1985 he has written a regular column for the Herald, which currently appears weekly. In the 1980s he embarked on a career as a novelist. He co-wrote three thrillers with fellow-journalist Bill Montalbano: Powder Burn (1981), Trap Line (1981), and A Death in China (1986). After Montalbano became a foreign correspondent, Hiaasen wrote his first solo novel, Tourist Season (1986), introducing many of his distinctive styles and themes. Hiaasen's fiction mirrors his concerns as a journalist and Floridian. His novels have been classified as "environmental thrillers" and are usually found on the mystery shelves in bookshops, although they can just as well be read as mainstream reflections of contemporary life. Hiaasen's Florida is a hive of greedy businessmen, corrupt politicians, dumb blondes, apathetic retirees, intellectually challenged tourists, hard-luck redneck cooters, and militant ecoteurs. It is the same Florida of John D. MacDonald and Travis McGee, but aged another 20 years and viewed with a more satiric or sardonic eye.
Bibliography
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)
- Lucky You (1997)
- Naked Came the Manatee (1998) (Collaboration with 12 other authors)
- Sick Puppy (2000)
- Basket Case (2002)
- Hoot (2002) (young adult novel) (Released as a movie in May 2006)
- Skinny Dip (2004)
- Flush (2005) (young adult novel)
- Nature Girl (2006)
With Bill Montalbano
- Powder Burn (1981)
- Trap Line (1982)
- A Death in China (1984)
Short stories
- "Tart of Darkness" (2003, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue)
Non-fiction
- Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (1998)
- Kick Ass (1999)
- Paradise Screwed: Selected Columns (2001)
Collections
- A Carl Hiaasen Collection (2000) (an audiobook set containing Tourist Season, Stormy Weather, and Strip Tease)
Awards
Hoot has won both a Newbery Honor from the Association for Library Service to Children and won the 2005 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award, selected for the latter honor by school-age children (grades 4-8) in the U.S. State of Illinois.
