Jan Zikmund studied English and American studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Since 2018 he has worked for the Czech Literary Centre where he is primarily responsible for the promotion of Czech literature in English-speaking countries. As part of this job, he initiated, for instance, the 2020 Czech issue of the Modern Poetry in Translation magazine and organised the presentation of Czech comics at the 2021 Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

He is also an editor of the English-language literary magazine B O D Y, and in March 2022 he became a regular poetry reviewer for the Host magazine. He is currently a member of the jury of the Magnesia Litera Award for Poetry.