The Six-Word Memoir: A Typographic Showcase

A presentation by Pakat

In conjunction with the Singapore Writers Festival 2025

Once challenged to tell a complete story in just six words, Ernest Hemingway famously wrote: “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This idea sparked Six-Word Memoirs, an ongoing storytelling movement where people distil their life stories into exactly six words.

Organised and curated by PAKAT, this showcase invites a new generation of creatives from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts to come up with their six powerful words to transform into compelling visual statements. Using typography as both language and visual form, each work is both a mirror and a window. Capturing moments of resilience, aspiration and identity, these perspectives reflect the shape of the students’ lives so far, while offering a glimpse into what might yet unfold.