ASST. Prof. Jennifer “Jenny” Rebecca Ortuoste, an award-winning essayist and fictionist and horse racing enthusiast who taught literature and communication courses at UST, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on July 21. She was 56.

A cancer survivor twice over, Ortuoste was diagnosed with the disease in May 2024. She went through the knife on June 15 but doctors were unable to remove the tumor due to potential complications, according to a GoFundMe page set up for her.

Ortuoste had battled Stage 3 colon cancer and Stage 1 breast cancer.

Alex, Ortuoste’s daughter, confirmed her mother’s death to the Varsitarian.

“She always had a positive, upbeat attitude,” Alex said. “Her writing was always witty yet precise, her creative nonfiction could pull one into its pages and feel as she felt.”

Ortuoste, fondly known as “Doc Jen” to her students and colleagues, began teaching at UST in 2019.

She obtained her undergraduate degree in communication, major in journalism in 1988 and doctorate in communication in 2016 at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She also earned a master’s degree in business management at Ateneo de Manila University in 2007.

Ortuoste handled creative writing, journalism, marketing communication, and communication courses at the Graduate School, and general education, creative writing, and communication subjects at the Faculty of Arts and Letters.

Ortuoste was a resident fellow at the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies and a researcher at the UST Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities.

Apart from her work in the academe, Ortuoste was an award-winning fictionist and essayist and a longtime opinion and literary columnist at the Manila Standard.

A horse racing aficionado and one-time officer of the Philippine Racing Commission, she won the 2011 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for her essay “The Turn for Home: Memories of Santa Ana Park,” about her recollections of the old Santa Ana racetrack in Makati.

Ortuoste also received a number of Nick Joaquin Literary Awards: “The Yule Tree” earned an honorable mention in 2019; “The High Priestess” won second place in 2018; “Marry Me” bagged third place in 2015; “Wolves I Have Known” won second place in 2014; and “How I Spent My US Vacation” bagged third place in 2013.

Her collection of stories was published by the UST Publishing House under the title “Fictionary: New and Award-Winning Stories” in 2016. 

“[Al]though she won many awards and accolades throughout her life, I, as her daughter, believe that her most significant contribution was the wisdom, inspiration, and empathy she imparted to her students and everyone she crossed paths with,” Alex said.

Ortuoste had served as a board member of the Philippine Center of the International PEN (Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) and a judge at the National Book Awards.

In May, she sat on the panel of judges for the fiction category of the 39th Gawad Ustetika, the Varsitarian’s annual literary derby.

Ortuoste’s wake will be held at her home in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

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