Dublin City Libraries Storyteller in Residence for Children announced
Published on 26th January 2024
Dublin City Council is delighted to announce the identity of its new Dublin City Libraries Storyteller in Residence for Children.
Following a successful competition, Simone Schümmelfeder from Germany has been appointed to the role. She will work across the city in Libraries and outreach locations to promote literacy by supporting children to engage with storytelling in all its forms.
Simone will encourage children to enjoy listening to stories, to read stories around particular topics and to gather their own stories. She will also deliver training to library staff and work on short programmes with targeted groups. Simone has the wealth of resources in Dublin City Libraries to call on, including books, ebooks and e-audiobooks, sensory toys, sensory cubbies etc.
Simone is a storyteller and writer from Germany. Born close to the Fairy Tale Road, which is closely associated with the Brothers Grimm, she grew up surrounded by stories. Simone studied to be a teacher, but her love for nature and adventure lured her away from school benches and she came to Ireland to be apprenticed to Irish storyteller Liz Weir.
Falling in love with storytelling and Ireland, Simone moved to Ireland in 2011 and founded the storytelling theatre StoryGate (www.storygate.net) together with her husband Irish storyteller and puppeteer Michael Phelan. Simone has performed extensively across Ireland and abroad in schools and libraries, at festivals and for various institutions, including the German Embassy, the Goethe Institut, Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival, Ghosts in the Glens Storytelling Festival and the Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival.
Together with Michael, Simone offers a unique storytelling experience for children with shows that combine storytelling and puppetry, science and creative writing as well as “Silent Stories” for non-native speakers and sensory stories and workshops. She trains both adults and children in storytelling and creative writing and runs Ireland’s only writing group specifically for children’s book authors at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin.
She was Reader in Residence for Laois Libraries and Artist in Primary Schools for Tipperary Arts Office. She is a TAP (Teacher-Artist-Partnership) trained artist, Secretary of Storytellers of Ireland/Aos Scéal Éireann and member of Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Scheme. Simone is a certified audiobook narrator and always on the look-out for a new story to learn. Her shows and workshops are a blend of the old and the new, with folktales and modern stories, bridging generations and cultures to touch the listener’s heart with the oldest of all arts.
Simone has been appointed to the position until May 2024.
Photo of Simone taken by Giita Hammond Photography.