Kevin Lambert

Kevin Lambert (born 1992) is a Canadian writer from Quebec. He is most noted for his novel Querelle de Roberval, which won the Prix Ringuet in 2019.

Originally from the Chicoutimi borough of Saguenay, Quebec, Lambert moved to Montreal in his late teens to study literature at the Université de Montréal. He published his debut novel Tu aimeras ce que tu as tué in 2017, and followed up with Querelle de Roberval in 2018. In addition to the Prix Ringuet, Querelle de Roberval won the Prix Sade and the Prix Oeuvre de la relève à Montréal, and was shortlisted for the Prix littéraire des collégiens.

Biblioasis has published English translations of both of his novels, with You Will Love What You Have Killed published in 2020, and Querelle of Roberval released in 2022. The translated version of Querelle of Roberval was a finalist for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and won the 2023 ReLit Award for fiction.

Lambert is openly gay. Querelle de Roberval is partially based on Jean Genet's 1947 novel Querelle of Brest (Querelle de Brest).

He published his third novel, Que notre joie demeure, in 2022. The novel was named to the initial longlist for the 2023 Prix Goncourt. Following the nomination, the novel sparked some controversy in France because Lambert was open about having had the novel vetted by a sensitivity reader prior to publication as it featured a key character of Haitian descent, with previous Goncourt winner Nicolas Mathieu criticizing the practice as stifling to a writer's creative liberty. The novel was subsequently named the winner of the Prix Médicis and the Prix Ringuet.