Fictionary by Jenny Ortueste

“Ortuoste…uses prose that is clean, muscular, vibrant. However, it is also prose capable of rising to lyrical heights…”
~ Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, award-winning author and editor

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Fictionary, Jenny Ortuoste’s first collection, contains sixteen stories that are by turns realistic, speculative, and contemplative, written in simple but elegant prose that flows along the river of reality into the realm of dreams.

Three are works that won Nick Joaquin Literary Awards in consecutive years—“How I Spent My US Vacation” (2013), “Wolves I Have Known” (2014), and “Marry Me” (2015). “The Cups” placed in a contest. Half of the stories in this book have been published; the others, including “Intoximacation,”“Shake It Off,” and “Gleep,” are new for this collection.

These tales explore a gamut of situations: a dying mother has strange hallucinations; the worst officemate ever has her last bad day at work; a woman expands her weapons arsenal; a deadbeat dad idolizes horses a bit too much; a friend discovers that the paranormal can be somewhat clingy; and a man displays an otherworldly loyalty to his job. Each finely-spun tale creates new definitions of what it means to be human.

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“Marry Me” was representative, or the best, of the good, well-wrought short fiction pieces in strong contention [in the 2015 NJLA].
~ Alfred A. Yuson, Philippine Star columnist, and author of Great
Philippine Jungle Energy Cafe

“Wolves I Have Known” takes us through an amusing tale of unrequited love made more poignant by predatory poetics. Only a mature writer can run off with poetry rendered in crisp, beautiful prose.
~ Joel Pablo Salud, author of The Distance of Rhymes and Other
Tragedies and The Chief is in the House

Jenny Ortuoste’s fiction sounds so much like our reality…Her prose is striking in its simplicity. There is no room for distractions, but plenty for the things that matter.
~ Adelle Chua, opinion editor, The Standard