In what order should I list names in the “Other contributors” slot?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

List them in the order given in the source. If the names are not presented hierarchically, the order is up to you. You may wish to model the entry on similar entries in your works-cited list that are organized according to how the contributors are given in the source.

For books, here’s a tip: If the order of contributors is unclear from the title page, check the copyright page for the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP) data. For example, the CIP data for Pablo Neruda’s poetry collection Odes to Common Things lists the author first, then the person who selected and illustrated the poems, followed by the translator. Your entry would read as follows:

Neruda, Pablo. Odes to Common Things. Selected and illustrated by Ferris Cook, translated by Ken Krabbenhoft, Bulfinch, 1994.