Michael Arceneaux

Michael Arceneaux (born April 12, 1984) is an American writer. He is the author of three essay collections: I Can't Date Jesus (2018, a New York Times bestselling book), I Don't Want to Die Poor, and I Finally Bought Some Jordans (2024).

Early life Michael Joseph Arceneaux was born April 12, 1984, in Houston, Texas, to a working-class Black family from Louisiana. was a devout Catholic, and Arceneaux was raised in the church, even briefly considering the priesthood. With a combination of scholarships and student loans, he enrolled at Howard University, where he majored in broadcast journalism and wrote for campus newspaper The Hilltop. He graduated in 2007, becoming the first man in his family to graduate from college. He has written for The Guardian, New York magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and XOJane, as well as writing an advice column, called "Dearly Beloved", at Into.

Books

I Can't Date Jesus

Arceneaux's first book, a collection of 17 humorous personal essays entitled I Can't Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé, was published on July 24, 2018 from Atria Books. The book debuted at number 14 on The New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction. It focuses on his early life as a young Black gay man growing up in a religious household in the southern United States. The book's title arises in response to Arceneaux's Catholic upbringing and its implications for him as a gay man, particularly the idea that even if being gay was not a choice, he should not act on it. Finding that theological debates on the subject did not tend to prove fruitful, Arceneaux decided, "Easier to just clarify, 'I plan to have sex, so I can't date Jesus.'" Arceneaux completed the manuscript in 2011, but the search for an agent delayed the book's publication. Ultimately he signed with Jim McCarthy, who had originally declined his query but Arceneaux persisted, sending him more essays to read and McCarthy changed his mind. and Samantha Irby.

I Don't Want to Die Poor Arceneaux's second book, I Don't Want to Die Poor (2020), expands on his essay for The New York Times describing his private student loan debt.