Phoebe Sinclair perused the shelves for a children’s book she’d heard about. Lisa Stringfellow did likewise.

The two authors, who were at Newtonville Books to lead Newton Community Pride’s Black History Month authors event Saturday afternoon, looked up and realized they’d had the same idea. After sharing greetings, they sat down to read aloud from their new novels, which are geared toward children aged 8 to 12.

Outside the temperature was only in the 20s. Inside the bookshop, it felt warm and inviting to the authors.

“It feels like home,” said Sinclair, a New Jersey native who lives in Jamaica Plain. “There’s nothing like it.”

The five audience members in attendance sat in rapt attention. Shoppers listened from nearby shelves as the authors shared their insights. One infant started crying when Stringfellow finished her excerpt — perhaps wanting more of the story.

The event was hosted by Newtonville Books and Newton Community Pride, a local nonprofit organization that presents free arts programming in the city. It was part of Newton Community Pride’s Black History Month event series, now in its third year. The organization received grants from Newton Cultural Council and the Harmony Foundation to keep the events free, said executive director Blair Lesser Sullivan.

Lesser Sulivan said she hoped attendees would experience “​​education, celebration, and a sense of community.”

Phoebe Sinclair reads from “”Confessions of a Candy Snatcher,” as Lisa Stringfellow listens during an authors event at Newtonville Books on Feb. 15. Photo by Emily Wyrwa. 

As folks trickled in from the cold, Mary Cotton, owner of Newtonville Books, introduced Sinclair and Stringfellow. The authors read from their latest books—Sinclair’s “Confessions of a Candy Snatcher” and Stringfellow’s “Kingdom of Dust”—and answered questions about their writing styles, how their roots influenced their work, and Sinclair’s inclusion of “zines” and poetry throughout her novel. 

“For my style of writing, I need to do it in community,” Sinclair said in an interview before the talk. While the image of the “solo writer”—who she said is usually a white male sitting at a desk in a house alone—can be a “cool image,” the most success she’s found is when she consults friends.  

Stringfellow, a Dorchester native and middle school English teacher, revealed in the talk that she often consults her students for feedback about her books. She even mentioned one sixth-grader in the acknowledgments of “Kingdom of Dust,” her second book, which was released in August. 

“When I talk to kids, first it’s, ‘Read tons of books,’ then it’s, ‘All writing counts,’” Stringfellow said. “If you say you’re a writer, you’re a writer. Then, I tell them, ‘Find the other people who like the same things that you like, who you can bounce ideas off of, and find the things out in the world that inspire you, because that’s all going to fuel what you write about.’” 

Both authors said much of their inspiration comes from their own lives. Stringfellow “mines” her own experience to drive her narratives, and highlights Black characters and “Black girl magic” in her fantasy books. 

“I didn’t even realize that I could be in the books,” Sinclair said. “This wasn’t a conversation when I was a kid … It’s the world—people talking, scents, smells, leaves–everything inspires me.” 

“Because I was a big reader, when I started [writing], I started thinking about the things that I would have loved to have found as a kid,” Stringfellow said. “I wanted to create space on the shelf for those kinds of books.”