Queer Books with Elderly Characters
Today is Senior Citizen's Day! It's stupidly hard to find books with older characters, but we've done our best to put together a list of queer books with older characters (we aimed for 65+ but not all books specify and ymmv on your estimate of the age of some of these folks). Happy reading! (This list is presented by Duck Prints Press, the indie publisher focused on publishing queer art and stories by queer creators! A group of us collaborate to make these recommendations.)
created by unforth
last updated August, 2026
Comments
The Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland could be a contender for this list!! It is told from the POV of an elderly storyteller and he is not personally romantically inclined but it takes place in a semi-queernorm fantasy world (his apprentice is openly mlm; polyamory is normalized in the specific country he is in) and the author is nonbinary.
unforthOP
ooo none of our folks mentioned that one, I'll pass it along! I know there are some Rowland fans among our crew of rec-list-helper folks
The fact that TCGF is in here is so funny to me LOLLL grandpa Xie Lian
Look, if they were just 800+ but acted entirely like 20 year olds they'd not be here.
But Xie Lian is an old man. Idk if I'd say the same about Hua Cheng but XL literally shares boomer memes in the group chat. 😂
Likewise for Copper Coins. I've read other danmei with old or immortal characters I didn't nominate, but Xue Xian is such a bratty elder, throwing his venerableness around to get his way, I had to nominate him.
I just wish we had some danmei where the characters also look older, sigh.
(These lists are made by a group, and I'm not even the only danmei reader in that group, so sometimes there's danmei or manga on these lists that can't be traced directly to me. This is not one of those times. 🤣 I also am why Bingo Love and Don't Call Me Daddy are here, those are my additions. 🤣🤣 and I actually wrote The Last Letters of Mrs. Victoria Holmwood - Nina Waters is my pen name - and so you know I practice what I preach!)
