My name is B. Sakura Cannestra, and welcome to my website!

I’m a politics reporter based in the Bay Area. Right now, I report for San José Spotlight, covering a host of topics including Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, transportation, housing and occassionally using data to report. During the 2024 elections, I kept our campaign finance trackers up to date, and recently received a California Journalism Award for Local Coverage of Election 2024 in Division 6.

I graduated from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2023, with a focus on web design, writing passionately, and telling interactive stories.

Previously, I interned at POLITICO California, covering tech regulation and policy in California and helping to organize the California Playbook newsletter.

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in English, minors in History and Creative Writing. In that time, I also grew my skills at The Daily Californian, covering everything from student government to higher education policy to protests attended by thousands. I also have experience in writing personal essay-style columns and publishing illustrations, also from The Daily Californian.

My interests in journalism are wide and varied, though my primary topic of interests are tech — tech culture, policy, innovation and advocacy. I am also very interested in new forms of telling stories, such as building digital interactive packages or audience engagement on social media.

I'm a plant dad and an avid calligrapher with a modest collection of gel pens. I'm also a novice Game Master running Dungeons and Dragons 5e and Kids on Bikes!

Thanks for stopping by my website, and get in touch below!