diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index fe3da4b04..0559840cf 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+Overview of changes leading to 4.2.1
+Sunday, April 24, 2022
+====================================
+- Make sure hb_blob_create_from_file_or_fail() always returns nullptr in case
+  of failure and not empty blob sometimes. (Khaled Hosny)
+- Add --passthrough-tables option to hb-subset. (Cosimo Lupo)
+- Reinstate a pause after basic features in Khmer shaper, fixing a regression
+  introduced in previous release. (Behdad Esfahbod)
+- Better handling of Regional_Indicator when shaped with RTL-native scripts,
+  reverting earlier fix that caused regressions in AAT shaping. (Behdad Esfahbod)
+
+
 Overview of changes leading to 4.2.0
 Wednesday, March 30, 2022
 ====================================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 65246a6cd..c353567d4 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.64])
 AC_INIT([HarfBuzz],
-        [4.2.0],
+        [4.2.1],
         [https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/issues/new],
         [harfbuzz],
         [http://harfbuzz.org/])
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 7de42b88b..ed59489be 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 project('harfbuzz', 'c', 'cpp',
   meson_version: '>= 0.55.0',
-  version: '4.2.0',
+  version: '4.2.1',
   default_options: [
     'cpp_rtti=false',       # Just to support msvc, we are passing -fno-exceptions also anyway
     'cpp_std=c++11',
diff --git a/src/hb-version.h b/src/hb-version.h
index 39fbde45c..94c73e15b 100644
--- a/src/hb-version.h
+++ b/src/hb-version.h
@@ -53,14 +53,14 @@ HB_BEGIN_DECLS
  *
  * The micro component of the library version available at compile-time.
  */
-#define HB_VERSION_MICRO 0
+#define HB_VERSION_MICRO 1
 
 /**
  * HB_VERSION_STRING:
  *
  * A string literal containing the library version available at compile-time.
  */
-#define HB_VERSION_STRING "4.2.0"
+#define HB_VERSION_STRING "4.2.1"
 
 /**
  * HB_VERSION_ATLEAST: