1st International Congress - London, England 1923
2nd International 1924
3rd International Congress - Paris, France 1925
4th International Congress - Berlin, Germany 1926
5th International Congress - Brussels, Belgium, 1927
6th International Congress 1928
7th International Congress 1929
9th InternationalCongress – The Hague, Netherlands 1931
10th International Congress - Budapest, Hungary 1932
11th International Congress - Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia 1933
13th International Congress - Barcelona, Spain 1935
14th International Congress - Buenos Aires, Argentina 1936
15th International PEN Congress – Paris, France 1937
16th International PEN Congress – Prague, 1938
International PEN Congress due to be held in Stockholm in June 1939 is cancelled due to the onset of war. Individual Centres hold internal conferences with different themes.
17th International Congress September – London, United Kingdom 1941: Writers in Freedom
International Conference held in London, U.K. in 1944 to commemorate the tercentenary of the publication of Milton’s Areopagitica: Freedom of Expression
18th International Congress – Stockholm, Sweden 1946
19th International Congress – Zurich, Switzerland 1947
20th International Congress – Copenhagen, Denmark 1948: The Art of Prose
21st International Congress -Venice, Italy 1949
22nd International Congress – Edinburgh, Scotland 1950
23rd International Congress – Lausanne, Switzerland 1951: Literature and History
24th International Congress - Nice, France 1952: La Jeune Generation et la Literature
25th International Congress – Dublin, Ireland 1953: The Literature of Peoples Whose Language Restricts Wide Recognition
26th International Congress – Amsterdam, Holland 1954: Contemporary Experiments in Literary Expression
27th International Congress – Vienna, Austria 1955
28th International Congress – London, England 1956: The Author and The Public
29th International Congress September – Tokyo, Japan 1957: The Reciprocal Influences of the Literature’s of the East and the West
30th International Congress - Frankfurt, W. Germany 1958: Imaginative Literature In The Age of Science
31st International Congress - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1960: An Interchange of Evaluations of the Cultures of East and West, and of National and International Literature
32nd International Congress - Oslo, Norway 1964: The Writer and Semantics – Literature as Concept, Meaning and Expression
33rd International Congress - Bled, Yugoslavia 1965: The Writer and Contemporary Society
34th International Congress - New York, U.S.A. 1966: The Writer As Independent Spirit
35th International Congress - Abidjan, Ivory Coast 1967: Legends and Mythologies As A Source of Inspiration in Arts and Literature; Men Between Two Languages; Traditional Values in Societies Undergoing Social Transformation
36th International Congress - Menton, France 1968: Literature in the Age of Leisure
37th International Congress – Seoul, South Korea 1970: Humour in Literature – East and West
38th International Congress – Dublin, Ireland 1971: The Changing Face of Literature: A Discussion and Evaluation of Developments Over The Past Fifty Years
39th International Congress – Jerusalem 1974: Cultural Heritage and Creativeness in the Literature of Our Times
40th International Congress - Vienna, Austria 1975: ‘Thirty Years of Peace for European Writers’
41st International Congress – London, England 1976: ‘The Truth of Imagination’
42nd International Congress – Sydney, Australia 1977: Literature A Bridge Between Asian and European Cultures
43rd International Congress – Stockholm, Sweden 1978: Literature in Disguise
44th International Congress – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1979: Literary Expression and Mass Communication; Literature and The Child
45th International Congress – Lyons, France 1981: Literature: Hope for a Crisis-Ridden World
46th International Congress – Caracas, Venezuela 1983: Latin American Literature As A Crossroads Between The Old And The New World And Their Literary Trends. Intercultural Exchange As A Source Of Literary Inspiration And Style
47th International Congress – Tokyo, Japan 1984: Literature In The Nuclear Age. Why Do We Write?’; ’Literary Relations Between East and West – Japanese Literature In The World Today’; ’Writers and Human Rights
48th International Congress – New York, U.S.A. 1986: The Writer’s Imagination And The Imagination Of The State
49th International Congress – Hamburg, West Germany 1986: Contemporary History As Reflected In Contemporary Literature
50th International Congress – Lugano, Switzerland 1987: Writers And Border Literature
51st International Congress – San Juan, Puerto Rico 1987: The Hero/Heroine In The Novel Of The Latin Americas
52nd International Congress – Seoul, South Korea 1988: Change And Permanency In Literature In A Rapidly Evolving Society
53rd International Congress – Maastricht, Netherlands 1989: The End Of Ideologies
54th International Congress – Toronto/Montreal, Canada 1989: The Writer: Freedom And Power
55th International Congress – Funchal, Madeira 1990: Language And Literatures: Unity And Diversity
56th International Congress – Vienna, Austria 1991: New Structures of Freedom: Literature As Diagnosis And Therapy
57th International Congress - Barcelona, Spain 1992: The Writer And Literary Language On The Threshold Of The Third Millenium
58th International Congress - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1992: Man In Face of Nature
59th International Literary Congress – Hvar/Dubrovnik, Croatia 1992: Place and Destiny
60th International Congress – Santiago de Compostela, Galicia 1993: Roads of Literature
61st International Congress – Prague, Czech Republic 1994: Literature and Tolerance
62nd International Congress – Fremantle, Western Australia 1995: Contexts of Freedom: Freedom of Expression and Cultural Diversity
63rd International Congress – Guadalajara, Mexico 1996: Literature and Democracy
64th International Congress – Edinburgh, Scotland 1997: Identity and Diversity
65th International Congress – Helsinki 1998: Freedom and Indifference
66th International Congress – Warsaw 1999: Farewell to the Twentieth Century
67th International Congress – Moscow, Russia 2000: Freedom of Criticism – Criticism of Freedom
68th International Congress – Ohrid, Macedonia 2002: Borders of Freedom/Freedom of Borders
69th International Congress – Mexico City, Mexico 2003: Cultural Diversity and Freedom of Expression
70th International Congress – Tromsø, Norway 2004: Writers in Exile – Writers in Minority Languages
71st International Congress – Bled, Slovenia 2005: The Tower of Babel: a Blessing or a Curse?, Language of Peace: Literature as a Lingua Franca, Literature as a Safeguard of the Cultural Landscape
72nd International Congress – Berlin, Germany 2006: Writing in a World Without Peace
73rd InternationalCongress – Dakar, Senegal 2007: The World and Human Values
74th International Congress - Bogota, Colombia 2008: The Role of the Word
75th International Congress – Linz, Austria 2009: Words, words, nothing but words
76th International Congress – Tokyo, Japan 2012: The Environment and Literature-What can words do?
77th International Congress – Belgrade, Serbia 2011: Literature – Language of the World
78th International Congress – Gyeongju, Korea 2012: Literature, Media and Human Rights
79th International Congress – Reykjavík, Iceland 2013: Digital Frontiers: Linguistic Rights and Freedom of Speech