His dramas were on current topics such as feminism, free love and home, maybe one of the reasons why he often used the pseudonym Jens Kristrup (Christrup).

Son of Peter Hostrup and Carol Anne Johanne, née Irgens, the young Jens was raised in a musical family.

In 1844 he wrote the comedy Gjenboerne for the party of the students association,[2] and after that he began to write a songplay, an act which inspired the poets Johan Ludvig Heiberg and Ferdinand Raimund.

While he was tutor at Kokkedal from 1844 to 1847, he wrote Intrigues in 1845, A sparrow in Crane Dance in 1846 and Tales of Walking Tour in 1847, and more dramas in various genres followed.

Hostrup published two collections of poems, Sermons in 1866, and the devotional book The resurrection and the life in 1883, Popular Lectures in 1882 and The defeat in 1864.