“No One Is Like Anyone Else.”

An Interview with Leopoldine Core

Leopoldine Core can’t stop looking atpeople’s faces. Her new story collection, When Watched, for
which she received the Whiting Award, pays extensive attention to visages,
countenances, and the like. In her stories, nothing is ever “written all over
your face”—rather, faces themselves speak loudly, and almost in a language of
their own. A friend’s casually disheveled face can enable one’s own ugliness,
otherwise hidden, to shine through; a lover’s charming expression can take on
sinister undertones in the right lighting; and a face on an album cover, when
stared at hard enough, can become unusually expressive—or sentient.

Core and I spoke on the phone about
insecurity, voyeurism, and unguessed similarities between dogs and drunk
college kids.

—Elliott Eglash

I. IF ANYTHING I WISH IT WAS BIGGER

THE BELIEVER: One of the things I noticed in your book
was the fascination, maybe obsession, with looking. It struck me that we’re kind of eliding the whole visual aspect by
talking on the phone. I figured maybe I’d ask you to describe your face for me,
and we can try to recreate it a little bit.

LC: [Laughs] That’s
funny. Let me look in the mirror.

BLVR: Yeah, go ahead.

LC: I’m wearing
my dog walking outfit, which is these black and white striped pants and a red
button down shirt. I’m not wearing make-up or anything. I’m not wearing my
glasses.

BLVR: You’re allowed to be a bit blurry then, I suppose.

LC: The first thing I notice is my eyes, or my eyelids rather.
I have the sort of eyes that are especially hooded, just like my uncle’s. And I
have these caves around my eyes where shadows pool. I used to hate my eyes.
They are brown but seem to change. Right now they have an amber light in them
but sometimes they look almost black. They burn when I look at people, I think
they do. I can’t hide my interest in someone, or my scorn. When I’m dating
someone, their parents are often suspicious of me, and I used to think it was
because of my eyes. Now I don’t know.

My two front
teeth are starting to buck out subtly—years ago I threw my retainer out a
window. My mouth is open a bit with the teeth showing. When I shut my mouth,
the chin dimples. I used to have a rounder face but the bones are starting
to jut. My eyebrows are dark brown. My lips are pink. I have seven small zits.
My hair is thick and orange with a slight wave. It is parted down the middle, Manson-like.
I have a...