Lemelin's first awards, in 1946, were Le Prix David and Le Prix de la Langue Française de l'Académie Française for Au pied de la pente douce. These were followed by two Guggenheim fellowships (in 1946 and 1947) and a Rockefeller fellowship (1953), the Prix de l'Académie des Arts et des Lettres (1954), membership in the Royal Society of Canada (1949), the Prix de Paris (for Pierre le magnifique), a French-language medal from the Académie Française (1965), membership (as a foreigner) in France's Académie Goncourt (1975), an honorary degree in literature from Laurentian University, Sudbury (1976), and election to the Canadian News Hall of Fame (1978). He was made companion of the Order of Canada in 1980.

Lemelin's four novels have been translated into English: Au pied de la pente douce (1944) by Samuel Putnam as The Town Below (1948); Les Plouffe (1948) by Mary Finch as The Plouffe...