Martin Machovec is a teacher, translator, and editor and an expert in Czech underground literary scene of 1950s, 1970s, 1980s. In 1970s and 1980s he was in contact with Czech dissidents and underground artists and poets, and took an active part in disseminating "samizdat" texts. He has written a number of treatises and essays on the subject, some of which were published (besides Czech) in English, German, Russian, Polish, and in other languages. He was has lectured in the US, Germany, Italy, Poland, among others, on related subjects. He is especially interested in poetic works by Egon Bondy, Ivan Martin Jirous, Pavel Zajíček. He lectures at the Comenius University and Charles University in Prague.