Gregory Fournier
April, 2013
By Paul Martell
Greg is the author of the award-winning Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel. He also happens to be an EMU Alumnus. EMU serves as a launching point for Greg’s story
If you were to read the blurb on the back-cover of Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel, you would learn that it takes place in the Motor City during the late 60s, and tells the story of Jake Malone. Jake is a young, white, suburbanite who finds himself working in the dank recesses of Detroit’s Zug Island. How does he get here? Well, Jake is kicked out of University and needs to find work. This singular alteration in Jake’s path sends him on a journey he is unprepared for. His journey will be filled with danger, racism, violence, and a healthy portion of humor.
What you would not learn from the back-cover plot synopsis is that Jake Malone is Greg Fournier; at least for the most part.
Greg Fournier is a 1977 graduate of Eastern Michigan University. He earned both a Bachelor of Applied Science in English Language and Literature, as well as a Master of 
Arts in World Literature. Greg was not always so studious. It was only Greg’s first year at EMU when he was “thrown out of Best Hall for drinking.” According to Greg, he was then dismissed for one semester, and had to find work. Greg needed money. This is how he came to work at Zug Island, a place he would call, “the dirtiest, coldest hell-hole.” Work at Zug Island was grueling, physical labor, and racial tension added to the stresses of Greg’s employment. Then the Detroit Riots broke out. According to Greg, this harsh time in Detroit’s history would provide him a, “crash-course in race relations, and really start my life as an adult.” Zug Island introduced Greg to his first, real African American friend and provided him the inspiration and basis for his first award winning novel.
After enduring Zug Island, Greg returned to EMU with a new-found passion for education and adherence to rules. Greg says, “It was just amazing how much my grades improved when I got back to Eastern.” He quickly earned his first degree and began teaching English at Ypsilanti High School while working toward a Master’s. Throughout Greg’s teaching career, he worked in Ypsilanti and eventually moved to San Diego, California (where he currently lives). He even spent a year teaching English at EMU. During these years, Greg would write. He wrote short stories, poems, text books, and stage plays. Then Greg decided, “I am never going to teach summer school again,” and used his summers to compose something else. He began to write about his experience at Zug Island. He was writing his own story. He wrote about his first car, about school, and about his first African American friend who would, “open up a whole urban world” for Greg. It all seemed to flow, and Greg knew he was writing a novel.
Greg retired from teaching and focused all his effort into writing the story about Jake Malone, and he wrote it well. Zug Island: A Detroit City Riot Novel is a 2011 Best Books Award Finalist, and received an honorable mention at the Los Angeles Book Festival. It has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, and provides a no-nonsense perspective on the harshest event in Detroit’s history. For Greg, the real value of the book lies in the exposure it has brought him. “This is a blue collar book full of the words which made Detroit famous. The real value is in the doors it has opened. You can’t just enter this profession and be successful; you have to build an audience.” Greg now has an audience; he also has another story to tell.
Greg is now working to write The Rainy Day Murders, a historical story set in Washtenaw County. Greg had just returned to EMU from Zug Island, and was residing in South campus when he found out he was living one block from a serial killer. John Collins was convicted in 1969 of murder. The jury found Collins guilty of one of the seven killings he was accused of. Greg is convinced he is responsible for more than has been reported, and his next work will lay out the evidence. Greg says, “I discovered John Collins was a suspect as I was walking back from the Corner Grill. I was walking past his place; it was full of police cars, and they were collecting evidence from the garage and his room.” He was immediately fascinated by the case. Greg had personally encountered Collins on four occasions, and says they were all negative.
Greg hopes his book will address many rumors which were passed around about the “Michigan Murders.” He says there is a lot of “cover up” going on in the John Collins case, which Greg aims to expose. “I am trying to tell the history, it is a history which is not liked, but you don’t get to choose your own story.”
Today, Greg Fournier spends seven days a week writing and researching the Rainy Day Murders. The first draft is almost complete. He says he is living his dream, “I have always been dabbling with words…it’s so great to be able to indulge my hobby.” In all that Greg has written, EMU has been a key factor in the foundation of his stories. “EMU really helped me to create a life, and frankly, it gave me a life.”
Greg Fournier has a compilation of experiences which tell a dramatic, raw story, and he is writing it all. He has an audience and a story, where it will lead him remains to be seen.
If you would like to connect with Greg, or learn more about Zug Island or The Rainy Day Murders check out his BLOG HERE.
By Paul Martell
EMU Young Alumni 