diff --git a/swh/loader/npm/tests/test_utils.py b/swh/loader/npm/tests/test_utils.py
--- a/swh/loader/npm/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/swh/loader/npm/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -266,3 +266,28 @@
                 'email': None
             }
         )
+
+        package_json = json.loads('''
+        {
+            "name": "yfe-ynpm",
+            "version": "1.0.0",
+            "homepage": "http://gitlab.ywwl.com/yfe/yfe-ynpm",
+            "repository": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "git@gitlab.ywwl.com:yfe/yfe-ynpm.git"
+            },
+            "author": [
+                "fengmk2 <fengmk2@gmail.com> (https://fengmk2.com)",
+                "xufuzi <xufuzi@ywwl.com> (https://7993.org)"
+            ],
+            "license": "MIT"
+        }''')
+
+        self.assertEqual(
+            extract_npm_package_author(package_json),
+            {
+                'fullname': b'fengmk2 <fengmk2@gmail.com>',
+                'name': b'fengmk2',
+                'email': b'fengmk2@gmail.com'
+            }
+        )
diff --git a/swh/loader/npm/utils.py b/swh/loader/npm/utils.py
--- a/swh/loader/npm/utils.py
+++ b/swh/loader/npm/utils.py
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@
             if 'email' in author_data:
                 author_str += ' <%s>' % author_data['email']
             return author_str
+        elif type(author_data) is list:
+            return author_data[0] if len(author_data) > 0 else ''
         else:
             return author_data