diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3b63ff320..12010bdd9 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,8 +1,16 @@
+Overview of changes leading to 1.8.1
+Tuesday, June 12, 2018
+====================================
+- Fix hb-version.h file generation; last two releases went out with wrong ones.
+- Add correctness bug in hb_set_t operations, introduced in 1.7.7.
+- Remove HB_SUBSET_BUILTIN build option.  Not necessary.
+
 Overview of changes leading to 1.8.0
 Tuesday, June 5, 2018
 ====================================
 - Update to Unicode 11.0.0.
 
+
 Overview of changes leading to 1.7.7
 Tuesday, June 5, 2018
 ====================================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6f5ae8f02..13cd1ce0d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.64])
 AC_INIT([HarfBuzz],
-        [1.8.0],
+        [1.8.1],
         [https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/issues/new],
         [harfbuzz],
         [http://harfbuzz.org/])
diff --git a/src/hb-version.h b/src/hb-version.h
index f02e8078a..2180d8490 100644
--- a/src/hb-version.h
+++ b/src/hb-version.h
@@ -38,9 +38,9 @@ HB_BEGIN_DECLS
 
 #define HB_VERSION_MAJOR 1
 #define HB_VERSION_MINOR 8
-#define HB_VERSION_MICRO 0
+#define HB_VERSION_MICRO 1
 
-#define HB_VERSION_STRING "1.8.0"
+#define HB_VERSION_STRING "1.8.1"
 
 #define HB_VERSION_ATLEAST(major,minor,micro) \
 	((major)*10000+(minor)*100+(micro) <= \