Q&A With Kristin Vukovic 

I’m delighted to be doing this Q&A with writer, traveler, fellow cheese lover and author of The Cheesemakers Daughter Kristin Vukovic! 

Q: Kristin, would you like to give a brief description of The Cheesemakers Daughter? Where did the idea for the novel come from?

A: As a longtime travel writer, place is an inspiration in my creative work. In October 2011, I was invited to attend “Days of Croatian Cheese” on the island of Pag, reporting on the festival for the now-defunct Croatian Chronicle. I was already familiar with Croatia from a decade of exploring my grandparents’ homeland and studying abroad in Zagreb and Dubrovnik as an undergraduate at Columbia University, but I had never visited this island. (Croatia has more than 1,000 islands.) I was struck by Pag’s barren terrain, so different than any other Croatian island I’d encountered, and its rich cheesemaking history. I became obsessed with cheese and sheep, and Pag’s tight-knit island life that was so different from my adopted life in New York City or my suburban upbringing in St. Paul, Minnesota. During subsequent visits and through research, I learned that Pag is administratively divided between two counties—a division that dates back centuries, when a king split the island between two bishops (the southern part of the island belongs to Zadar County, which is part of Dalmatia). With its rich history and dramatic moonscape, I felt Pag Island would be an ideal setting for a book.

My visits to Pag coincided with Croatia’s accession to the European Union in 2013, and my novel is set in 2012, before that historic event. My protagonist, Marina, is reckoning with her identity and finding a sense of belonging in a new Croatia. Marina—who came of age on Pag Island during the 1990s and left as a teenage refugee for New York City—struggles to define what home is. The country she left was called Yugoslavia, and she returns to Croatia, where things have changed. At its core, my novel is about a woman discovering who she was really meant to be—but she must first face her past and find a way to reconcile the two halves of herself. You can read more about the novel here.

Q: How long did it take you to write The Cheesemakers Daughter? 

A: Too long! As mentioned, when I first visited Pag in 2011, I thought it would be a great setting—but it took me a good decade to really discover the story I wanted to write. During the pandemic, writing the remainder of Marina’s story was my virtual escape to Pag Island at a time when we were all grounded.

Q: What lessons & emotions do you want readers to learn and feel after they turn the last page after finishing reading The Cheesmakers Daughter?

A: Even though the story is fictional, I hope readers will learn a lot about Croatia! And I hope they’ll be transported to the island of Pag. In some sense, writing this story was a way to honor my Croatian heritage (although my family isn’t from Pag). As the granddaughter of Croatian immigrants, I’ve always been drawn to stories with themes of identity, home, belonging and reinvention. There are so many points in our lives where we can choose to reinvent ourselves, and I wanted to write a story about a woman who paves the way for belonging on her own terms. Ultimately, this story is about a character who finds a way to reconcile the halves of her identity (her Croatian self and her American self). After struggling to overcome some difficult life challenges, Marina becomes who she was always meant to be. I want to leave readers feeling empowered, with a sense of possibility. It’s never too late to start over.

Q: I read in your bio-Jill Santopolo & Caroline Leavitt, both authors who I’ve done Q&As with over the years, gave The Cheesemakers Daughter such rave reviews! How does it feel knowing two New York Times Bestselling Authors gave wonderful reviews of the book?

A: I was so fortunate to be introduced to Caroline Leavitt by another bestselling author who also blurbed my book—the inimitable Jean Kwok. Caroline is one of the nicest people I know and such a generous literary citizen; she even gave me a pre-publication blurb, which was a huge confidence boost and made me feel like I had written a real novel. To have been endorsed by such incredible bestselling authors whose work I greatly admire is such a gift, and I am very grateful. (PS: If you haven’t already, pick up THE LOVE WE FOUND—the highly anticipated sequel to THE LIGHT WE LOST by Jill Santopolo, which was published in March!)

Q: I think it’s amazing you’ve had work appear in  in The New York Times, BBC Travel, BBC Good Food Magazine, AFAR, Travel + Leisure, Coastal Living, Hemispheres, Virtuoso, Fodor’s, and Public Books, among many others! What advice would you have for anyone wanting to submit their work to those publications? Has writing for those publications helped in writing The Cheesemakers Daughter?

A: It might seem obvious but read the publications! See what has been published in the last few months and familiarize yourself with the publication sections and tone. I’ve spent more than a decade building a travel writing career with an expertise in Croatia. My advice to aspiring writers is always to chase your passions. Write what only you can write. There’s that adage, “write what you know,” but it’s more than that—find the angle that is unique to your perspective. Novelists are often asked to write “off-the-book” pieces that are applicable to their novels, which I did for The Cheesemaker’s Daughter, including articles for AFAR (“Your Favorite Cheese Can Determine Your Travel Future”) and Fodor’s (“Why the Best Cheese in Europe Comes from Croatia”). Fun fact: Someone recently reached out to me via the contact form on my website and invited me to join their book club virtually for a Q&A—and she learned about my novel through the AFAR cheese fortune-telling article I’d published, above! I’d also published numerous pieces on Pag Island prior to my book deal, including this one for BBC Travel (“The Cheese Flavoured by Wind”) which helped establish me as an authority on the subject matter. In writing and in life: Never give up. Keep tweaking your pitch until it lands.

Q: If/When The Cheesemakers Daughter becomes a movie or series, who would be your dream cast for the characters you created?

A: Such a great question! I see Mila Kunis as Marina—she’s gorgeous and has the depth required for Marina’s character. I haven’t honestly thought further than that. But having The Cheesemaker’s Daughter turned into a series or movie would be a dream come true.

Q: Are you currently working on your next book & if so, will it be a sequel to The Cheesemakers Daughter? Or will your next book be a standalone with different characters and plot?

A: My next novel is a big departure from The Cheesemaker’s Daughter, with completely different characters and plot. And spoiler alert: it is not set in Croatia! I’m nearing the end of a draft and I’m so excited. Stay tuned ☺

Q: You’ve traveled to many different places! I can’t wait to travel one day! Which places are your favorites to see and where do you plan to travel next?

A: I’m leading the inaugural Adriatic Writers Conference for aspiring novelists on Croatia’s island of Lošinj in mid-May 2025 with bestselling author Jo Piazza (also featuring Special Guests Sheila Yasmin Marikar and debut novelist Lidija Hilje). Afterward, I’m heading to Dubrovnik for a couple days. The next big trip with my family will be to India and possibly Thailand—my husband grew up in India, and it will be our daughter’s second trip there to visit his family. I love traveling around Asia and Southeast Asia: Japan, Thailand, and Bali were standout trips. And I love going to Croatia, again and again.