The Bedmaking Competition 

The Bed-making Competition chronicles the coming of age of two sisters, Hillary and Bridgid, in five stories, taking place over twenty years, as they manage abandonment, motherhood, illness and the ineffable connections of the families that we are born into and those that we create.

Winner of the Viva La Novella competition 2018 and the 2019 Mascara Avant-garde award for fiction. 

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We found these things called death bracelets, made out of bone, one of a snake eating its tail, and another one that was like a river running over itself.  They seemed to be about time and eternity, and I thought they were so beautiful, I thought if I were going to steal one thing from the museum, it would be one of those death bracelets. 
 
“Do you think they are made out of dead people’s bones?” I said.
 
“Well I don’t think the people are still alive,” said Bridgid.
 
“I meant animals,” I said
 

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​"I kept wanting to know more, and having to intuit much, and being rewarded by the book’s feeling for the mysteriousness of what happens to people over the course of a lifetime."  Elizabeth Knox, launch speech 

"The Bed-Making Competition is startling, humorous and compassionate in voice and tone. Reminiscent of J.D Salinger’s Franney and Zooey, it offers the wisdom of near-lived experience through the alternating fictional voices of two sisters over twenty years..." Mascara Literary Review 

"A quirky and tender novella, by turns hilarious and heart-breaking, caustic and deeply compassionate ... told by strong-willed and clear-voiced protagonists, iconoclastic and brazen and beautifully vulnerable as well. "  Fiona Wright 

"The details ... establish an architecture of the domestic, of family, that is both intimate and revealing ... This immensely satisfying read startles and surprises as much as it draws you into points of recognition."  Paula Green

"There is another bottle of champagne. Behaviour reverts to the same carefree innocence of twenty years before..." Marcus Hobson, NZ Booklovers

"Think Anne Enright’s psycho-noir, with a touch of Katherine Mansfield’s unreliability and a sliver of Emily Perkins’ sharp cultural commentary: Jackson’s novella is NZ realism, written with the skill of a deft and witty poet." Lynley Edmeades, Landfall Review

​A "quirky and intimate approach in exploring what might happen when you feel the need to escape from a life that hasn’t turned out the way you thought it would..." Chloe Cooper, Kill Your Darlings

"A book that will make you wish you had sisters, or that the ones you have were like the ones in this story." Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

Parts of this novella were written and edited on a Michael King Summer Residency at the Michael King Centre in Devonport, Auckland, in the beautiful golden-ceilinged writing studio.