The Training Commission is a speculative fiction novella about the compromises and consequences of using technology to reckon with collective trauma. Originally presented as a newsletter in May 2019, the project now lives on this website.
Several years after a period of civil unrest and digital blackouts in the United States, a truth and reconciliation process has led to a major restructuring of the federal government, major tech companies, and the criminal justice system.
In this still-rebuilding America, freelance journalist Aoife Tkachenko is just trying to make a living (and a name for herself outside of the shadow of her famously-martyred older brother) when she stumbles onto a document from the commission’s archives that many powerful people would rather keep buried. As she digs deeper into the story (all the while dispatching her findings to her newsletter subscribers), Aoife realizes that what she’s found could upend America’s tenuously held peace–and get her killed in the process.
Questions or media inquiries can be sent to [email protected].
Brendan C. Byrne is a writer whose fiction has appeared in Terraform, Flapperhouse, and Dark Mountain. His criticism appears in Rhizome, The Baffler, and Imperica.
Ingrid Burrington is an artist and writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Popula, The Verge, and other outlets. You can find more of her work at lifewinning.com.
The Training Commission is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the authors’ imagination(s) or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Training Commission received financial support from Mozilla. The contents of The Training Commission do not necessarily reflect the views of Mozilla and do not speak for or on behalf of Mozilla.