Petr A. Bílek is a Czech literary theorist and historian, professor at the Institute of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University.

He has made a significant contribution to the modernisation of teaching and to the introduction of comparative studies as an independent field of study within the Institute of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University where has has been a professor since 1986. In 2016-2020 he served at the Faculty of Arts of JU in the position of Vice-Dean, and currently he is the Director of the JU Publishing House. In 1994-1997 and then in 2000 he was a visiting professor of Czech literature at Brown University (Providence, USA), in 2004-2011 he completed several short-term teaching stays at the University of Glasgow (UK).

He is the author of six books on literature and culture and co-author/editor of five other books. He wrote on modern Czech poetry, literary theory, and – in the last decade – mainly on contemporary Czech prose fiction.