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Of all disciplines, literary studies has the most entrenched model of academic authorship – the sole author – yet the discipline rarely reflects critically on the implications of this model. This article offers a starting point by reporting on a study designed to analyse recent co-authorship trends within literary studies. It provides the large-scale data mining necessary for a longitudinal analysis. Using systematic sampling at five-year intervals between 1995 and 2015, the article examines 51,192 articles listed in the Modern Language Association International Bibliography to determine co-authorship rates in literary studies. The article shows that co-authorship is atypical, at an overall average of just over 4%. There is, however, evidence that co-authorship is becoming more common in the discipline, particularly since 2010. This article canvasses some possible reasons for this increase and concludes that academics in literary …