2025 Issue — Movement: A Letter to Readers

Dear Readers, 

This year’s edition of Working Draft revolves around movement — physical, social, political, and environmental. We invite you to explore how movement pushes and pulls on each aspect of the human experience.

As we wrap up our sixth issue of Working Draft, wildfires are raging across the province and many people are displaced. This year we published two stories about wildfires: Georgia Dyck’s “Chasing Fire” chronicles her first season fighting Manitoba wildfires and Matthew Frank’s feature “After the Smoke Settles” looks at the longer-term effects of First Nation evacuations that result from natural disasters. Jana Giguere also wrote about environmental movement in “Connected by Chaos,” a story about wind.

Many of our writers responded to the theme of movement with sports writing. In this issue, you’ll find stories about women in para hockey, motorsports, the PWHL, and how women from Steinbach’s Filipino community are re-claiming space on the basketball court. 

Others wrote about cultural and societal movement, from looking into how assistive technology has changed over the years and how early childhood educators are dealing with burnout to exploring how Baybayin, an ancient script pre-dating Spanish colonialism in the Philippines, is making a resurgence.

Others looked at internal movement — from how we grieve and relate to religion and spirituality to how our childhood experiences continue to move and shape us.  

As much as we might fear the changes of movement, without it, we stagnate. Movement spurs new ideas and sparks cultural exchanges. It creates our fundamental experience as human beings. 

We are born to grow. To flow. To reinvent. We are creatures born to move.  Thank you for reading and moving through these stories with us. 

— 2025 Working Draft editorial board and contributors

Not sure where to start? Try these reads: