Petr Šesták was born in 1981 into a Czech-Jewish family in the Sudetenland of south Moravia. He is a graduate in Czech from the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague. After he tried his luck in London, love led him to Paris. He went on to teach Czech in Lviv, Ukraine. He has written screenplays for a travel show broadcast on Czech Television and was involved in its filming in Mongolia and islands of the French West Indies. For two years, he lived in a motor home as he travelled about Europe with a mobile exhibition of photographs.

His experiences of the nomadic life are captured in the poetic, philosophical travel book A Nomad’s Gallery / Kočovná galerie (Paper Jam, 2014). His volume of short stories The Hunt / Štvanice (Dauphin, 2015) also draws on his stays abroad. His third book, Continuity in the Park / Kontinuita parku (Host, 2021), attracted excellent reviews and resonated very strongly with readers. In parallel with his latest work Burnout / Vyhoření, a novelistic pamphlet about the life of humans in a world of cars, in autumn 2023 the author published the book for children The Road Is A Dog / Cesta je pes (also in Host). In 2024, Burnoutwas shortlisted for a Magnesia Litera award in the Prose category.  

In 2025, he made his debut as a playwright with the play Darwin & co., staged at the Husa na provázku Theatre.

Petr Šesták now lives mainly in Prague. He runs an analogue photo booth and organizes cultural events a small border town.