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 newspaper's weekly magazine and 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. Somehow he has managed to remain employed, and today his column appears on most Sundays in The Herald's opinion-and-editorial section. It may be viewed online at www.herald.com.

For his journalism and commentary, Hiaasen received the Damon Runyon Award from the Denver Press Club in 2003-2004. Hiaasen began writing novels in 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.

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," though it failed to frighten a single tourist away from Florida, as Hiaasen had hoped it might. His next novel, Double Whammy , was the first novel ever written about sex, murder and corruption on the professional bass-fishing tour. In fact, it might be the only novel on the subject.

Since then, Hiaasen has published eight others -- Skin Tight , Native Tongue, Strip Tease, Stormy Weather , Lucky You, Sick Puppy, Basket Case and Skinny Dip. He is also the author of two novels for young readers, the newly released Flush and Hoot, which was awarded a Newbery Honor. The film version of Hoot was released in the spring of 2006, directed by Wil Shriner and produced by Jimmy Buffett and Frank Marshall. (Hoot is now available on DVD). Hiaasen is also responsible for Team Rodent, an unsparing rant against the Disney empire and its grip on American culture.

Together Hiaasen's novels have been published in 33 languages, which is 32 more than he is able to read or write. 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.

To prove that he doesn't just make up all the sick stuff in his books, Hiaasen has also published two collections of his newspaper columns, Kick Ass and Paradise Screwed , both courageously edited by Diane Stevenson.

One of Hiaasen's previous novels, Strip Tease , became a major motion picture in 1996 starring Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds, and written and directed by Andrew Bergman.