about

STEPHEN MCNEILLY is a London based writer, artist, curator, editor, anthologist, publisher and museum director at Swedenborg House, London. He is a founding editor of Dedecus Press (2002) and the author of a number of books including Concerning an Idea About Place and Swedenborg’s Lusthus, the last of which was described by the Cambridge Review of Books as a ‘poignant reflection upon the inter-connectedness of place and writing’ and culminated in an exhibition and publication featuring contributions by Deborah Levy, Iain Sinclair, Ken Worpole, Chloe Aridjis and numerous others. He has authored several limited edition chapbooks with the newly established collaborative imprint Hundtēontiġ Editions (2026).

In his role as Museum Director at Swedenborg House, he has curated and programmed numerous exhibitions the most recent being Elective Affinities including works by Leonora Carrington, William Blake, S T Coleridge and Asger Jorn amongst others. He is also the Programme Director of the Swedenborg Film Festival, the Swedenborg Residency and the Swedenborg House Gallery and is the founding editor of the Journal of the Swedenborg Society, described by Annalisa Volpone as a ‘mapping of the impact of Swedenborg’s thought on the western literary imaginaire’. As series editor and contributor of the Swedenborg Review and the Swedenborg Archive Series, he has collaborated with numerous authors and artists including Peter Ackroyd, Homero Aridjis, A S Byatt, Iain Sinclair, Tom McCarthy, Tomas Transtromer and others.

More widely he has published three small volumes of poetry, has contributed to the Poetry Review and the Blake Quarterly, and has published/translated works by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, French dada artist Arthur Cravan and the Idealist philosopher George Berkeley. He has collaborated on several projects with the writer Iain Sinclair and has staged projects at the Whitechapel Gallery, Frith Street Gallery, Curzon Soho and internationally. He has lectured in critical theory, philosophy and art at the University of Creative Arts, Canterbury and Central Saint Martins, London. He is currently writing a reconstructive novella of Honore de Balzac’s lost manuscript Louis Lambert entitled The Youngest of the Dead and is the editor and contributor of the Swedenborg Book of Endnotes and the Dedecus Catalogue Raisonne.

S  E  L  E  C  T    B  O  O  K  S

• 2025 GIFTS RETURNED BY THE RIVER — contributing author: Edited by Iain Sinclair, with Brian Catling, Alan Moore, Jarett Kobek, Michael Moorcock, etc., (London: Swedenborg House Editions)
• 2025 DEDECUS BOOK OF ENDNOTES/DEDECUS CATALOGUE RAISONNE (forthcoming) — editor with contributions by The Quinn Fizzlers (Dedecus Press)
• 2025 HEREAFTER — contributing author with Simon Moretti, Deborah Levy, Jennifer Higgie, Chloe Aridjis, Adrew Durbin and others, (Swedenborg House Editions).
• 2024 CONCERNING AN IDEA ABOUT PLACE — author (Swedenborg Archive) 
• 2024 SWEDENBORG’S LUSTHUS — author/commissioning editor. With contributions by Deborah Levy, Chloe Aridjis, Daniel Birnbaum, Iain Sinclair, Ben Wickey et al. (London: Swedenborg Society).
• 2023 SWEDISH ECSTASY — contributing author. Edited by Daniel Birnbaum with essays by Bryony Fer, Jennifer Higgie, Julia Voss (Yale University Press, 2023).
• 2023 SOLUTION OPPORTUNITIES: IS AT 80 — contributing author. Edited by Gareth Evans with contribution by Jonathan Meades, Marina Warner, J H Prynne (Haggerston Print Works).
• 2023 HISTORIES AND HAUNTINGS — contributing author.  Edited by iain Sinclair (Albion Village Press/Swedenborg Archive).
• 2022 INTRODUCING SWEDENBORG: AN ESSAY BY PETER ACKROYD — commissioning and series editor.  (Swedenborg Archive).
• 2021 THE STORY OF SWEDENBORG IN 27 OBJECTS — author (Swedenborg Archive).
• 2020 ON THE CONJUGIAL ANGEL: AN ESSAY BY A S BYATT — contributing author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2019 AN EVENING OF DREAMS — commissioning editor. With contributions by Homero Aridjis, Eva Hoffman, Darian Leader, Tom McCarthy and Selina Mills (Swedenborg Archive). 
• 2018 IN CELEBRATION OF TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER — commissioning editor/author with contributions by Homero Aridjis, Kjell Espmark, Ulrika Funered, Monica Lauritzen, David Lister, Robin Robertson, Monica Tranströmer, Tomas Tranströmer and Per Wåstberg (Swedenborg Archive). 
• 2014 THE DEDECUS PICTURE ARCHIVE, parts 4-6, editor/author/photographer (London: Dedecus Press).
• 2013 SWIMMING TO HEAVEN: AN ESSAY BY IAIN SINCLAIR — contributing author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2012 PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE, MYSTICISM: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ESSAYS — author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2012 SEVERAL CLOUDS COLLIDING: BRIAN CATLING AND IAIN SINCLAIR — editor (BookWorks/Swedenborg Archive)
• 2012 MEMOIRS OF SWEDENBORG — editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2011 BLAKE’S LONDON: AN ESSAY BY IAIN SINCLAIR — editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2010 INTRODUCING THE MYSTIC: AN ESSAY BY R W EMERSON  — editor/contributing author (Swedenborg Society)
• 2009 THE DEDECUS PICTURE ARCHIVE, parts 1-3, editor/author/photographer (Dedecus Press).
• 2008 DEDECUS: A DICTIONARY, parts 1 & 2 — author (Dedecus Press)
• 2008 MAINTENANT, part 1, Arthur Cravan — translator/editor (Dedecus Press)
• 2007 THE ARMS OF MORPHEUS — author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2006 GEORGE BERKELEY’S COMMONPLACE BOOK — author/editor (Dedecus Press)
• 2005 BETWEEN METHOD AND MADNESS — author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2004 IN SEARCH OF THE ABSOLUTE — author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2002 ON THE TRUE PHILOSOPHER — author/editor (Swedenborg Society)
• 2001 ON THE TRANSLATOR AND THE LATIN TEXT — author/editor (Swedenborg Society)

S  E  L  E  C  T    E  X  H  I  B  I  T  I  O  N  S 

• 2025 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL — programme director. With invited judges Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair (CURZON SOHO).
• 2025-26 ELECTIVE AFFINITIES — curator (SWEDENBORG HOUSE).
• 2024 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL — programme director. With invited judge Xiaolu Guo (WHITECHAPEL GALLERY).
• 2024 PARIAH GENIUS: JOHN DEAKIN (programme director and contributing artist) Curated by Iain Sinclair and in partnership with CHEERIO and the estate of Francis Bacon Estate (SWEDENBORG HOUSE GALLERY).
• 2024 SWEDENBORG’S LUSTHUS: ON MEMORY AND PLACE (curator and contributing artist) Including works by Daniel Birnbaum, S T Coleridge, Ken Worpole et al  (SWEDENBORG HOUSE GALLERY).
• 2023 HISTORIES & HAUNTINGS (programme director and catalogue essay) Curated by Iain Sinclair with Brian Catling and Renchi Bicknell (SWEDENBORG HOUSE GALLERY).
• 2023 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL — programme director. With invited judges Andrea Luka Zimmerman & Ben Rivers (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2023 TREMULATIONS (programme director) Curated by Daniel Birnbaum with works by Mark Lecky, Yayoi Kusama et al (SWEDENBORG HOUSE GALLERY).
• 2023 HILMA Af KLINT AND PIET MONDRIAN: FORMS OF LIFE (exhibition consultant) Curated by Bryony Fer and Frances Morris (TATE MODERN).
• 2023 CONCERNING AN IDEA ABOUT PLACE (curator) Including works by William Blake, Jeremy Deller, S T Coleridge, D T Suzuki, et al. (SWEDENBORG HOUSE GALLERY).
• 2023 SWEDISH ECSTASY (catalogue essay) (BOZAR, CENTRE FOR FINE ARTS, BRUSSELS).
• 2022 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL (programme director) with invited judges Keith Sargent and Lindsay Seers  (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2021 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL (programme director) with invited judge Samson Kambalu (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2020 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL (programme director) with invited judge John Smith (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2018 SWEDENBORG AND THE ENGLISH ROMANTICS (curator) Including works by William Blake, S T Coleridge, John Flaxman et al (SWEDENBORG HOUSE GALLERY).
• 2017 AN EVENING OF DREAMS (curator) with works by Peter Cartwright, Jeremy Deller, John Flaxman, Karl Holmqvist, Stephen McNeilly, Bridget Smith, Emanuel Swedenborg and Vernon Watkins (FRITH STREET GALLERY). 
• 2017 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL (programme director) with invited judge Ali Smith (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2016 NOW IT IS PERMITTED: 24 WAYSIDE POSTERS (co-curator) Including Bob and Roberta Smith, Cornelia Parker, Ali Smith, Gavin Turk, Fiona Banner, Marina Warner et al (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2016 SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL (programme director) with invited judge Andrew Kötting (SWEDENBORG HALL).
• 2012 D T SUZUKI: MANUSCRIPTS AND LETTERS (curator) (SWEDENBORG HOUSE).
• 2010 SWEDENBORG HOUSE: FOURTEEN INTERVENTIONS (curator/artist) Including works by Brian Catling, Tony Carter,Jeremy Deller, Olivia Plender, Edward Chell, Peter Fillingham, Lucy Harrison, Ben Judd, Iain Sinclair (SWEDENBORG HOUSE).
• 2010 ART LANDS ON ALIEN LANDSCAPE (exhibition/artist/catalogue) (LIMBO ARTS, MARGATE).
• 2007 RUB A DUB DUB (three person exhibition with Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan) (EXEX, SWITZERLAND).
• 2005 BETWEEN METHOD & MADNESS solo exhibition (VERTIGO GALLERY, LONDON).