Julie Hensley's "Five Oaks"

Julie Hensley is the author of three books, Five Oaks, Landfall: A Ring of Stories, and Viable. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Real World and The Language of Horses. A professor at Eastern Kentucky University and core faculty member in the Bluegrass Writers Studio Low-Res MFA Program, she lives in Richmond with her husband, the writer R Dean Johnson, and their two children.

Here Hensley dreamcasts an adaptation of Five Oaks:

It’s fun to think about how Five Oaks might play out on the screen. Olivia Newman would be a great director. She really captures the feel of southern landscapes and generational secrets in her adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing. She would find a way to tease out the slightly gothic elements.

In terms of the current temporal frame, I would cast it this way:

Sylvie Pritchard: Quin Copeland

Wren Pritchard: Ava Phillipe

Georgia (Mamaw) Stone: Sally Field

Byron (Papaw) Stone: Pierce Brosnan

Dixie Daley: Frances McDormand

Cash Daley: Harris Dickinson

Hollis Corley: Jacob Trembley

Joe Corley: Sam Elliot

Margaret Pritchard: Reese Witherspoon

Jim Pritchard: Bradley Cooper

Visit Julie Hensley's website.

Q&A with Julie Hensley.

--Marshal Zeringue