Brooke Matson is a poet and book artist in Spokane, Washington, where she is the executive director of Spark Central , a non-profit dedicated to igniting creativity, innovation, and imagination. Eight years of teaching and mentoring at-risk youth deepened her study of physical science and the psychological effects of violence and loss. Matson's second collection of poetry, In Accelerated Silence , was selected by Mark Doty as winner of the Jake Adam York Prize and published by Milkweed Editions.