St. Clair County Community College will use a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to bring award-winning authors Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin to campus in April.

The grant will benefit Patterns, the college’s literary and arts publication of student work. Patterns is the longest continually published community college literary and arts magazine in the state. This year marks the 52nd edition of Patterns. The publication each year features the best of SC4 student work.

This is the second time SC4 has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant. The college also received $10,000 in 2008 to bring in guest authors and produce the 50th anniversary edition of Patterns.

This year’s grant will be used to produce the publication and to bring Franklin and Fennelly to campus. They will judge student work, give readings and provide writing advice to students.

Fennelly and Franklin are married and live in Mississippi.

Fennelly is an associate professor of English at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. She has published four books of poetry and nonfiction, including Unmentionables. She’s also had poems published in more than 40 anthologies.

Franklin is a writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi. An author of three books, his next novel, Crooked Letter Crooked Letter, is due out in September. His stories and novel excerpts have appeared in more than 40 publications.

The writers will be part of the Patterns recognition ceremony, reception and guest author readings from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday, April 25, in the college’s Fine Arts Theatre and College Center Atrium.

SC4’s James Frank, professor of English and French, and Shelly Simmons, senior accountant, collaborated on this year’s grant.