Carl Hiaasen

Hiaasen grew up in a rural suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The oldest of four children, he began writing at age six when he received a typewriter for Christmas. Upon graduating high school, Hiaasen attended several Florida colleges, where he contributed humor columns to the schools’ newspapers while earning a degree in journalism. In 1976, after briefly working for TODAY in Cocoa, Florida, the Miami Herald hired him. He became an opinion columnist for the paper in 1985, a position he held until he retired in 2021. In the 1980s, Hiaasen began writing humorous crime thrillers, first in collaboration with a colleague and then on his own. Hoot, published in 2002, was his first novel for young adults and was named a Newbery Honor Book. Nearly all of his novels take place in Florida, where he still lives, and many have environmental themes.