Buxton Books Presents Author and Chef Gabrielle Hamilton in conversation with Chef Mike Lata
celebrating Hamilton's new memoir, Next of Kin

Buxton Books is excited to welcome Gabrielle Hamilton, author of Blood, Bones, and Butter, and chef and owner of the iconic restuarant Prune, to the bookstore to celebrate her new memoir, Next of Kin. Hamilton will be joined in conversation by Charleston's Mike Lata, executive chef and co-owner of FIG. 

Tickets are $35 and include a signed, hardcover copy of the book and a refreshment. Get yours now to join us. 

We hope to see you there!

Please note: Tickets to this event are non-refundable. If you are no longer able to attend the event, we are happy to hold the copy of the book included with your ticket for up to 2 weeks following the event or ship it to you at an additional cost. 

About Gabrielle Hamilton:

Gabrielle Hamilton is the author of the New York Times bestseller Blood, Bones & Butter, which won the James Beard Foundation’s award for Writing and Literature, and the cookbook Prune. She is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York City’s East Village. Hamilton received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan and contributed to the monthly “Eat” column for The New York Times magazine for five years. Her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Bon Appétit, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, Elle, and House Beautiful.

About Next of Kin:

An electrifying memoir about the demise of a singular family—a stunning new book by Gabrielle Hamilton, author of the New York Times bestseller and James Beard Award-winner Blood, Bones & Butter

The youngest of five children, Gabrielle Hamilton took pride in her unsentimental, idiosyncratic family. She idolized her parents’ charisma and non-conformity. She worshipped her siblings’ mischievousness and flair. Hers was a family with no fondness for the humdrum.

Hamilton grew up to find enormous success, first as a chef and then as the author of award-winning, bestselling books. But her family ties frayed in ways both seismic and mundane until eventually she was estranged from them all. In the wake of one brother’s sudden death and another’s suicide, while raising young children of her own, Hamilton was compelled to examine the sprawling, complicated root system underlying her losses. She began investigating her family's devout independence and individualism with a nearly forensic rigor, soon discovering a sobering warning in their long-held self-satisfaction. By the time she was called to care for her declining mother–the mother she’d seen only twice in thirty years–Hamilton had realized a certain freedom, one made possible only through a careful psychological autopsy of her family. 

Hamilton’s gift for pungent dialogue, propulsive storytelling, intense honesty, and raucous humor made her first book a classic of modern memoir. In Next of Kin, she offers a keen and compassionate portrait of the people she grew up with and the prevailing but soon-to-falter ethos of the era that produced them. A personal account of one family’s disintegration, Next of Kin is also a universal story of the emotional clarity that comes from scrutinizing our family mythologies and seeing through to the other side.

About Mike Lata: 

Mike Lata is Chef/Co-Owner of FIG and The Ordinary in Charleston, SC. A formidable presence  in the city’s culinary scene, he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2009, and was a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in 2017 and 2018. Lata’s restaurants have received major accolades of their own, including several James Beard Award wins and nominations and placement on countless national “Best Restaurant” lists. 

A native of Western Massachusetts, Lata began his culinary career at an early age, working in kitchens in Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, New Orleans, Atlanta, and France before landing in Charleston in 1998. Today, Lata’s hands-on, self-taught approach is elegant yet uncomplicated, centered on bright, satisfying dishes that pay homage to Lowcountry traditions. A longtime champion of area farmers and fishermen, Lata’s outspoken commitment to local foodways has made him a key player in Charleston’s culinary renaissance. 

Lata’s philosophy and contributions to the Charleston community have earned him national acclaim, including nods from The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Esquire, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Travel + Leisure, USA Today and The New York Times. He has also appeared on several major television programs, including Food Network’s Iron Chef America, Bravo’s Top Chef, PBS’s Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking, The Today Show and ABC’s Nightline Platelist, where his food was deemed “so good it will buckle your knees.” Lata also serves as a Culinary Consultant to The Kiawah Island Club.