diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index e175b38a8..48a51d68f 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+Overview of changes leading to 1.4.4
+Sunday, March 5, 2017
+====================================
+
+- Fix Context lookup application when moving back after a glyph deletion.
+- Fix buffer-overrun in Bengali.
+
+
 Overview of changes leading to 1.4.3
 Saturday, February 25, 2017
 ====================================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a3eb0f021..55b48a53b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.64])
 AC_INIT([HarfBuzz],
-        [1.4.3],
+        [1.4.4],
         [https://github.com/behdad/harfbuzz/issues/new],
         [harfbuzz],
         [http://harfbuzz.org/])