diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3a33bdf5c..dbbfbba19 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+Overview of changes leading to 0.9.39
+Wednesday, March 4, 2015
+=====================================
+
+- Critical hb-coretext fixes.
+- Optimizations and refactoring; no functional change
+  expected.
+- Misc build fixes.
+
+
 Overview of changes leading to 0.9.38
 Friday, January 23, 2015
 =====================================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 3e42d95b4..166a121e9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.64])
 AC_INIT([HarfBuzz],
-        [0.9.38],
+        [0.9.39],
         [http://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=harfbuzz],
         [harfbuzz],
         [http://harfbuzz.org/])