Xavier Blackwell-Lipkind, from West Hartford, Connecticut, is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University. The editor-in-chief of the Yale Literary Magazine and a lead writing partner at The Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Xavier is a two-time recipient of the John Hubbard Curtiz Prize for his literary essays, which is awarded from Yale’s English Department to recognize love of the English language and facility in writing. He also serves as the president of the university’s undergraduate chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

In 2022, Xavier participated in the Institut d’Avignon’s advanced French literature program, and received a Critical Language Scholarship for intensive Portuguese study in Brazil. An avid violist and percussionist, he has studied musical composition through summer programs at both Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Curtis Institute of Music, and played viola in the Yale Symphony Orchestra during his first two years of undergraduate study.

As a Marshall Scholar, Xavier will read for an MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation at the University of Oxford, followed by the pursuit of an MA degree in Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia.