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Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida, where he still lives with his family.

A graduate of the University of Florida, at age 23 he joined The Miami Herald as a general assignment reporter and went on to work for the paper's weekly magazine and later its prize-winning investigations team. Since 1985 Hiaasen has been writing a regular column, which at one time or another has pissed off just about everybody in South Florida, including his own bosses. He has outlasted almost all of them, and his column still appears on most Sundays in The Herald's opinion-and-editorial section. It may be viewed online at www.miamiherald.com or in the actual printed edition of the newspaper, which, miraculously, is still being published.

For his journalism and commentary, Hiaasen has received numerous honors, including the Damon Runyon Award from the Denver Press Club and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

Hiaasen’s work has also appeared in many well-known magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Time, Life, Esquire and, most improbably, Gourmet.

In the early 1980s, he began writing novels with his good friend and a distinguished journalist, the late William D. Montalbano. Together they produced three mystery thrillers -- Powder Burn, Trap Line and A Death in China -- which borrowed heavily from their own reporting experiences.

Tourist Season, published in 1986, was Hiaasen's first solo novel. GQ magazine called it "one of the 10 best destination reads of all time," although it failed to frighten a single tourist away from Florida. His next effort, Double Whammy, was the first (and possibly the only) novel about sex, murder and corruption on the professional bass-fishing circuit.

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View the Star Island trailer.

Carl appeared on Morning Joe.
View his clip.

Read a free excerpt from Carl's new novel, Star Island.

See Carl in person! He's coming to a town near you as part of his Star Island tour. Details here.

Marilyn Stasio reviewed Star Island on July 30 in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Watch Carl Hiaasen profiled on 60 Minutes.

See Carl's appearance on The Today Show.

Three middle schoolers take on greedy land developers, corrupt politicians, and clueless cops in this mystery adventure based on Carl Hiaasen’s Newbery Honor-winning book.

www.hootmovie.com

Resources
  Random House
  The Lavin Agency

Miami Herald
Carl Hiaasen’s column appears regularly in The Miami Herald
Recent Columns
Carl's work is featured in a new compendium of the best newspaper columns of all time, alongside Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill and others. The book is Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns, it's published by The Overlook Press, and it's available now.
Carl appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC Sept. 28. You can view the video here.
(Carl's segment begins at 2:55 in this video link.)
CHOMP, Carl Hiaasen's new novel for young readers, is the story of an animal wrangler and his son who are drawn into a wild Everglades adventure with the pampered, pompous star of a TV survivalist show. The book will be published in March 2012 and can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.
Skinny Dip: The Mini-Series
Carl's 2004 bestseller about a woman who seeks a peculiar revenge on her husband after he tries to kill her, has been acquired by HBO. Michael Keaton will be the executive producer, and the novel will be adapted for television by Michael Oates Palmer, whose writing credits include the popular series "West Wing" and "Rubicon."
SCAT, Carl's latest book for young readers, was recently awarded the "Prix du Livre Environnement" prize by Veolia Environnement in France. The French version of SCAT, Panthère, is published by Gallimard Jeunesse.

More details at prixdulivre.veolia.com.
Carl was a guest on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! game show Feb. 4. Listen in here.

Star Island has arrived in paperback. The trade paperback is on sale everywhere, and the mass market will arrive in May 2012.

Order it now at IndieBound, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Read a free excerpt from Star Island.

Read Carl's Star Island FAQ.


New editions of Kick Ass and Paradise Screwed are now available.
SCAT nominated for Grammy
The audiobook version of SCAT was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award in the Spoken Word Album for Children category. Edward Asner narrated the audiobook.

Buy it now.
Carl takes on golf
in The Downhill Lie
Ever wonder how to retrieve a sunken golf cart from a snake-infested lake? Or which club in your bag is best suited for combat against a horde of rats? ...

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"Flush" Is Out in Paperback
You know it's going to be a rough summer when you spend Father's Day visiting your dad in the local lockup. Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor...

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"Nature Girl" Is Now Out in Paperback
Q: Where did the idea for NATURE GIRL come from?

“I'd always fantasized about tracking down one of these telemarketing...”

Read more "Nature Girl" FAQ