Carl Hiaasen (Keynote Speaker)

CARL HIAASEN

"America's finest satirical novelist...the blazing conscience of the Sunshine State" —The Observer

A master of satirical wit, an award-winning social and political commentator, a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and the bestselling author of several adult and children's novels — Carl Hiaasen is praised for the intelligent and entertaining voice that characterizes both his fiction and non-fiction works.

Hiaasen was born and raised in South Florida, where he still lives with his family. He attended Emory University and graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Florida in 1974.

Since 1976, Hiaasen has worked for The Miami Herald, first as a general assignment reporter and later joining the newspaper's prize-winning investigations team. There he worked on projects exposing dangerous doctors, crooked land deals, and drug corruption in the Bahamas and the Keys. For the last twenty years, Hiaasen has written a regular column that has won numerous awards and earned him the enmity of many sleazy politicians, who've found themselves the target of his pen. Today his column appears on most Sundays in The Herald's opinion-and-editorial section. Hiaasen has published two collections of his newspaper columns, Kick Ass and Paradise Screwed, both edited by Diane Stevenson.

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

Hiaasen's first solo novel,  Tourist Season, was named "one of the ten best destination reads of all time" by GQ Magazine in 1986.  Since then, he has gone on to publish several others, including Skinny Dip, Double Whammy, Skin Tight, Native Tongue, Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Lucky You, Sick Puppy, Basket Case, and The Downhill Lie—a personal, humorous look at his baffling love of golf. Strip Tease became a major motion picture in 1996 starring Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds, written and directed by Andrew Bergman. Hiaasen is also responsible for Team Rodent, an unsparing rant against the Disney empire and its grip on American culture.

Hiaasen made his children's book debut with Hoot (2002), which was awarded the Newbery Honor and was a New York Times bestseller. He went on to write the bestselling Flush (2005), and his most recent, Scat (January 2009). Hiaasen began writing for kids with his youngest family members in mind. He "wanted something [he] could hand over to his nephew, nieces, and stepson without having to worry about the exuberant expletives, sexual gymnastics, or casual dismemberments that occur routinely in [his] other work." 

The film version of Hoot was released in the spring of 2006, directed by Wil Shriner and produced by Jimmy Buffett and Frank Marshall.

Together Hiaasen's novels have been published in 33 languages. The London Observer has called him "America's finest satirical novelist," while Janet Maslin of the New York Times has compared him to Preston Sturges, Woody Allen, and S. J. Perelman.

Learn more about Carl and his books at www.carlhiaasen.com.