In January 2007, the Espy Foundation welcomed its first six graduate students from Brooklyn College to Oysterville for a special writer's residency.  The Dean of Brooklyn College, Donna Wilson, attended one of Espy's famed summer Garden Parties and thus began a partnership betweeen the two organizations.

"To confront oneself in solitude is quite a thing.  The person I became, or got back to, is what I believe to be the most precious gift Oysterville gave me." - Matthew Maggio