Carl Hiaasen is an American journalist and novelist. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and by the late 1970s had started writing novels in his spare time, both for adults and for middle-grade readers. Two of his novels have been adapted into feature films, and one into a TV series.

Hiaasen's adult novels are humorous crime thrillers set in Florida, featuring casts of eccentric, sometimes grotesque characters, and satirizing aspects of American popular culture. Many of the novels include themes related to environmentalism and political corruption in his native state.