American lawyer and writer, Parker graduated from Journalism and Law at the University of Florida, and has since worked as a lawyer, journalist, and columnist. He has been the editorial director of Running Times magazine and has written for Outside, Runner's World, and others specialized publications, but he is known above all for being the author of the cult novel The Runner (1978) and the most recent ones Back to Carthage (2007) and Carrera en la RAIN (2015).

Based on his experience as a college athlete, Parker's famous trilogy chronicles the struggles of Quenton Cassidy, a passionate middle-distance runner, and achieved unprecedented success in the running community. The author once said that a broker is needed to tell the story of a broker, so it took about eight years to produce the book: seven as a broker and one to write it. Convinced that the story would conquer athletes, Parker did not just write it, but founded his own editorial and personally took care of the design and printing, and tirelessly dedicated himself to sending it to manufacturers and distributors of sports shoes.