This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1960.
Events
The first Adelaide Writers' Week was held as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Major publications
Books
Thea Astley – A Descant for Gossips
Russell Braddon – The Proud American Boy
Nancy Cato – Green Grows the Vine
Jon Cleary – North from Thursday
Charmian Clift – Walk to the Paradise Gardens
Nino Culotta – Cop this Lot
Catherine Gaskin – Corporation Wife
Elizabeth Harrower – The Catherine Wheel
George Johnston – Closer to the Sun
Elizabeth O'Conner – The Irishman
Nevil Shute – Trustee from the Toolroom
Arthur Upfield – Valley of Smugglers
Joan Lindsay – Picnic at Hanging Rock (novel)
Short stories
James Aldridge – Gold and Sand : Stories
Ion Idriess – The Wild North
John Morrison – "Dog-Box" Hal Porter – "Party 42 and Mrs Brewer"
Children's and Young Adult fiction
James Aldridge – The Shark Cage
Nan Chauncy – Tangara
John Gunn
The Humpy in the Hills
Peter Kent's Command
Elyne Mitchell – Silver Brumby's Daughter
Eleanor Spence – Lillipilly Hill
Judith Wright – The Day the Mountains Played
Patricia Wrightson – The Rocks of Honey
Poetry
Christopher Brennan – The Verse of Christopher Brennan, edited by A. R. Chisholm and John Joseph Quinn David Campbell "Town Planning" "Under the Wattles" "Windy Nights" Rosemary Dobson – "Ghost Town : New England" Geoffrey Dutton – Night Fishing R. D. Fitzgerald – "Bog and Candle" Gwen Harwood "The Glass-Jar" "Group from Tartarus" A. D. Hope "The Coasts of Cerrigo" Poems Colin Thiele – Man in a Landscape Judith Wright – Australian Bird Poems
Drama
Alan Seymour – The One Day of the Year
Awards and honours
Literary
Children and Young Adult
Poetry
Births
A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1960 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.
4 August – Tim Winton, novelist
9 November – Michael Robotham, novelist
Unknown date
Pamela Freeman, novelist
Margo Lanagan, novelist and short story writer
Fiona McIntosh, novelist
Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1960 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
12 January – Nevil Shute, novelist (born 1899) 14 June – E. V. Timms, novelist (born 1895) 6 November — John Lavington Bonython, newspaper editor and journalist (born 1875)