Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Quraishi.
Hi Amanda, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I spent two decades working in digital marketing and engaging in community activism before I burned out. I went down in flames in 2023, right before I turned 50. At that point (thanks to support from family and friends) I started thinking about what was next for me. I decided the time was right to follow my dream of becoming a novelist, so I began writing my debut novel in the fall of 2024. I released it on November 1, 2025 under my nom de plume, Daniela Quirke.
Writing a novel was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, creatively. It forced me to grow in ways I wasn’t expecting. The process of writing a novel required me to develop new skills and a whole new level of self-discipline, but my biggest struggles came from self-doubt and fear of judgment.
I’m starting my next novel this month (January 2026), and taking all the new learning and confidence I gained while writing my debut into this project. Stay tuned!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m the type of person who generally learns by doing—the queen of FAFO. So I had no real clue what to expect from writing a novel. Turns out the writing was the easy part. My biggest challenges came from feeling like an imposter and from worrying that people would hate it once I released it into the world.
It takes most people years to write a novel. It’s easy to lose perspective working on a project that big. After a while, I started questioning everything about it. If it wasn’t for my creative partners and the support of my friends and family, I might have quit.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve just released my debut novel, a weird little story about finding yourself in your early 20s, under my nom de plum (Daniela Quirke).
I also have a podcast focused on creativity where I interview all kinds of people engaged in creative work – authors, musicians, photographers, filmmakers. It’s called The Qreative Life podcast with Amanda Quraishi. It’s a passion project, and I love doing it. I firmly believe the most important thing any of us can do right now is engage with our creativity. Everything in our society is currently set up to sap us of our creative energy and hand over the reins of creative work to ‘the machines.’
There’s nothing more human than producing things that reflect our internal creative power, even if the only thing that comes out of it is our own joy and satisfaction.
Art is not a product. It’s a process. It need not be perfect or conform to anyone else’s sense of what is right or true or beautiful. It is a transcendent form of communication–the human spirit expressing itself through a wholly unique and unreproducible lens. Simply engaging with this process is far more critical than any outcome it yields.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I moved to Austin in 1998, and it’s changed a lot. But underneath the homogenized culture that’s been imported from out of state, there’s still a strong undercurrent of that laid-back, cowboy-hippie vibe that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Austin has always been a place to hear some of the best live music in America. We’re the gateway to the hill country, which is sublime in the spring. Our food isn’t fancy, but it’s tasty (if you know where to look).
The one intolerable thing is the traffic, which has become exponentially worse over the last ten years. It’s bad. Real bad.
Pricing:
- Print $14.99
- Electronic $4.99
Contact Info:
- Website: danielaquirke.com / theqreativelife.com / amandaquraishi.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/danielaquirke
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/AmandaTheQ
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@TheQreativeLife
Image Credits
Photos by Virginia Hernandez Photography
