About Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen (; born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist and novelist. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and by the late 1970s had begun writing novels in his spare time, both for adults and for middle grade readers. Two of his novels have been made into feature films, and two have been made into TV series. Hiaasen's adult novels are humorous crime thrillers set in Florida. They feature casts of eccentric, sometimes grotesque characters and satirize aspects of American popular culture. Many of the novels include themes related to environmentalism and political corruption in his native state. == Early life and education == Hiaasen was born in 1953 born to Odel and Patricia Hiaasen of Norwegian and Irish ancestry as the first of four children, including his brother Rob Hiaasen. Raised in Plantation, Florida, then a rural suburb of Fort Lauderdale, he started writing at age six when his father gave him a typewriter for Christmas. After graduating from Plantation High School in 1970, he entered Emory University, where he contributed satirical humor columns to the student newspaper The Emory Wheel. In 1972, he transferred to the University of Florida, where he wrote for The Independent Florida Alligator.
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