Guide

How literary translations are credited

Library catalogues record translators as contributors in their own right, and some literary prizes now reward author and translator together. authorrecord.org names the translator where a source does and keeps translation years separate from first-publication years.

• The Library of Congress relator term Translator, code trl, covers a person or organisation who renders a text from one language into another.¹
• The International Booker Prize splits its 50,000 pound award equally between the author and the translator of the winning book.²
• Nobel Prize bibliographies name translators for individual editions, for example Deborah Smith for the 2015 English translation of Han Kang's The Vegetarian.³
• UNESCO's Index Translationum is a free online database of translations from 1979 onward with over 1.3 million records, and a print edition covers 1932 to 1986, according to a Michigan State University Libraries guide.⁴

Sources

1. Library of Congress, MARC Code List for Relators, Term Sequence (10 July 2026)
2. The Booker Prizes, The International Booker Prize (accessed 2026-10-28)
3. Nobel Prize Outreach, Han Kang, Bio-bibliography (accessed 2026-10-28)
4. Michigan State University Libraries, Translations, research guide (accessed 2026-10-28)