Our Story Tellers

Simone is a storyteller and writer from Germany. She had planned to become a teacher, but her love for stories and adventure lured her away from school benches and into the life of a professional storyteller.

Born in the small town of Beverungen in rural Germany, Simone grew up surrounded by stories. Her hometown is close to the Fairy Tale Road which runs all through Germany and connects the settings of various Grimm fairy tales. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and the Pied Piper of Hamlin were her neighbours, is it a wonder she turned to storytelling?

Simone first came to Ireland as the apprentice of well-known storyteller Liz Weir. She fell in love with the art of storytelling and with Ireland and decided to stay. As the founder of the storytelling theatre StoryGate, she thrives to bring stories to everyone. Together with Irish teller and puppeteer Michael Phelan and her twin sister Silke Schuemmelfeder, Simone creates ever-new ways of sharing the joy of storytelling. With interactive and engaging shows she and her StoryGate team enchant children and adults alike.

She has performed extensively across Ireland in libraries, schools and at festivals, including the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival, the Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival. Simone also was Reader-In-Residence for Laois Libraries and Artist-In-Primary-Schools for Tipperary Arts Office. Her repertoire is varied and ever-growing. It includes folktales from all around the world as well as modern stories and urban legends. She is also fascinated by “sensory storytelling”, which integrates sensory stimulation into the stories to make them more accessible, specifically for children and adults with additional needs.

Apart from telling stories, Simone writes children’s books. She successfully runs a writing group for authors of children’s and YA fiction at the Irish Writers’ Centre, providing a safe place for emerging and established authors to connect, learn and create. Since late 2020, Simone’s writing is represented by literary agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor and the Marianne Gunn O’Connor Literary Agency.

She is a member of Storytellers of Ireland (Link: Schuemmelfeder, Simone – Story Tellers of Ireland) as well as part of Poetry Ireland’s Writer’s In Schools Scheme (Link: Simone Schuemmelfeder | Poetry Ireland).