LibAnswers: MLA FAQs

According to the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, when a work has two authors, you list both of their names in the works cited entry (the lead author will be Last name, First name; the coauthor will be First name Last name).

When a work has three or more authors, you only list the lead author, followed by et al.(11-113). 

If you are listing two or more works by the exact same lead and coauthors AND in the exact same order, you can list your first entry as normal in the works-cited, and the subsequent entry/entries can use three hyphens (or three em dashes) in place of the author name element to indicate that the same authors in the same order are responsible for the work(120).

So, according to the MLA Style Center blog, if you were to have the same lead author but different coauthors OR the same lead author but the coauthors are in a different order, you can list the lead author followed by "et al." (or the coauthors' name if only two authors) for each of your works-cited entries (since using three hyphens would indicate that the authors and order are completely the same). 

For more information and examples: 

https://style.mla.org/same-author-different-coauthors/

Works Cited

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021. 

"If I cite sources with the same lead author but different coauthors, do I use et al.?" MLA Style Center, Modern Language Association of America, 13 Apr. 2018, https://style.mla.org/same-author-different-coauthors/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023