McDaniel received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1990, where he studied with Thomas Lux, Brooks Haxton, Kate Knapp-Johnson, Cornelius Eady, and Safiya Henderson-Holmes.
In his senior year of college, McDaniel was in a weekly reading group with authors Joel Brouwer, Tessa Rumsey, and Marisa de los Santos, among others.
In grad school, McDaniel first began publishing poems in magazines, including Ploughshares, Fine Madness, Exquisite Corpse, and Willow Springs.
Other DC WritersCorps members included DJ Renegade, Kenny Carroll, Joe Ray Sandoval, A, Van Jordan, Imani Tolliver, Brian Gilmore, and many other talented writers.
From 1994-96, McDaniel co-hosted (with Silvana Straw) a monthly reading series at The Black Cat Club on 14th and T. Many talented writers performed there, including Henry Taylor, Carl Hancock Rux, Matt Cook, Crystal Williams, A.E.
During this time, McDaniel did a one-man show, Hunting For Cherubs, combining poetry, video, dance, and music, at the Washington Project for the Arts, produced by Ceridwen Morris.