L. R. Swamy translated directly from Telugu into Malayalam and wrote poems in Mathrubhumi and other places during his childhood. After getting a job and settling in Visakhapatnam, he self-taught himself Telugu and wrote more than 200 stories in Telugu. He has translated 44 books into Telugu and 16 books from Telugu to Malayalam. He won the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award in 2015 for translating the novel Sufi Parang Katha into Telugu.