David Daniel was raised in Murfreesboro in Tennessee and is a poet of national acclaim. He has been the poetry editor for Ploughshares a literary journal published by Emerson College in Boston. Ploughshares has had guest editors such as Seamus Heaney, Peter O'Malley as well as many others including David Daniel.

Daniel wrote several reviews of poetry in Ploughshares in his two periods as poetry editor. His poems and reviews have also appeared in numerous other journals including the Harvard Review, Agni, post Road and Witness. He served as the poetry editor from 1992 until 2007. After this role he moved to become the director of undergraduate creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. He also performs the role of political editor for The Literary Review at the same university.

David Daniel's most famous book of poems - Seven-Star Bird published by Graywolf in 2003 won the Levis Reading Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University. He also wrote essays and reviews which have been published in various places including The Harvard Review, Ploughshares, Boston Review and The Journal of Country Music.

David Daniel has also travelled across the United States of America with his book and also music bringing the words to life with his Tennessee twang. Daniel also picked up degrees from Vanderbilt University, John Hopkins University and the University of Virginia. At the University of Virginia Daniel was also a Henry Hoyns Fellow.

In 1992 David Daniel wrote a chapbook entitled The Quick and The Dead which was published by Haw River.