Betty Lambert

Rosalind Kerr (University of Alberta)

Ed. by Glen Nichols, Mount Allison University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Sean Seeger (University of Essex), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

Born 23 Aug 1933
Died 4 Nov 1983
Activity 1953-1983

Places

Born in Canada
Active in Canada

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Betty Lambert’s ACTRA award for best radio drama, Grasshopper Hill (1979), and a Chalmers award for her stage play, Jennie’s Story (1981), are markers of her very successful career as an English-Canadian playwright. Established first in radio drama and in theatre for young audiences, Lambert’s career took off with the publication of her adult stage plays, Sqrieux-De-Dieu (1975), Clouds of Glory (1980), Jennie’s Story and Under the Skin (1985). A pioneer in her treatment of such controversial subjects as rape, racism, and sexual violence, Lambert’s plays reflect the emergence of a new feminist phase in Canadian theatre. Involved for several decades with CBC radio in Vancouver, Lambert also wrote plays for young audiences which were produced at Joy Coghill’s Holiday Theatre in Vancouver. An associate professor of English at Simon Fraser University, Lambert contributed greatly...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

865 words

Citation: Kerr, Rosalind. "Betty Lambert". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2599, accessed 05 December 2025.]

View recommended reading for this article