Born in Parassinikkadavu in the Kannur district of Keralam in 1952, N. Prabhakaran taught Malayalam in several colleges before retiring as the head of the department from Brennen College, Thalassery. He has published nearly fifty works, including novels, poetry, plays, short story collections, essays, a travelogue, a children's book, and a memoir in two parts, Njan Mathramallatha Njan and Ente Brennan Kaalam.

Prabhakaran won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2025 for his novel Mayamanushyar. The novel also won the 2020 Odakkuzhal Award. His play Pulijanmam (co-translated with Jayasree Kalathil as Born to Be a Tiger) received the 1987 Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award and the 1988 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. Another Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award followed, this time in the short story category, for Rathrimozhi. A recent collection of short stories, Oru Pidi Uppu, won the Deshabhimani Literary Award in 2026. Other accolades include the inaugural EMS Memorial Trust Award in 2005 for the novel Theeyoor Rekhakal; the Vaikom Muhammed Basheer Memorial Trust Award in 2009 for Thiranjedutha Kathakal; and the Malayattoor Award for the novel Janakatha in 2010. In 2022, Prabhakaran was honoured with the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Fellowship for lasting contributions to Malayalam literature.

In 2019, Jayasree Kalathil translated a collection of his novellas into English. The book, Diary of a Malayali Madman, published by HarperCollins India, won the Crossword Book Jury Award for Translation that year, and was shortlisted for the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award. A North American edition was published by Deep Vellum in 2021. His novel Theeyoor Rekhakal was also translated by Jayasree Kalathil and published as Theeyoor Chronicles by HarperCollins India in 2021.

N. Prabhakaran lives in Dharmadam in Kannur district, Keralam.