The global translation field is characterized by an asymmetrical and hierarchical structure. The translation of Mo Yan’s fiction into English falls into the underrepresented research domain of translation flows from the periphery to the center. Combining Bourdieu’s theory and world literature studies, this article explores how Mo Yan’s fiction circulates from the periphery to the English center and becomes world literature. Drawing on a socio-archival analysis of materials collected from the Chinese Literature Translation Archive, the article reveals the multifaceted and invisible roles of Howard Goldblatt, Sandra Dijkstra, editors, and publishers in conjunction with their interactions in the production and consecration of Mo Yan’s fiction. In so doing, it argues that the circulation of Mo Yan’s fiction into the American literary field and its ascendency to the ranks of world literature can be primarily attributed to the manifold roles simultaneously performed by the network of translation agents with their cultural, social, economic and symbolic capital. The article also stimulates a rethinking of the applicability of Bourdieu’s sociological theory established in the French context to other contexts and contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms for producing and consecrating peripheral literature in the dominating literary field.