Haslett began writing fiction as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College, where he happened to take one seminar with Franzen. After college, he found himself trying to choose between writing and what he calls "a reliable life" in a solid profession, such as law. He was able to defer Yale while he studied at the Iowa Writers and the Provincetown Fine Arts Workshops. Today, he says, "it's still an open question" as to whether he'll ever practice law, now that he's making a name for himself as a writer.