diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 92e5a53..4973d12 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,38 @@
+Overview of changes leading to 1.6.0
+Friday, October the 13th, 2017
+====================================
+
+- Update to Unicode 10.
+
+- Various Indic and Universal Shaping Engine fixes as a result of
+  HarfBuzz Hackfest with Jonathan Kew at Web Engines Hackfest at
+  the Igalia offices in A Coruña, Spain.  Thanks Igalia for having
+  us!
+
+- Implement Unicode Arabic Mark Ordering Algorithm UTR#53.
+
+- Implement optical sizing / tracking in CoreText backend, using
+  new API hb_font_set_ptem().
+
+- Allow notifying hb_font_t that underlying FT_Face changed sizing,
+  using new API hb_ft_font_changed().
+
+- More Graphite backend RTL fixes.
+
+- Fix caching of variable font shaping plans.
+
+- hb-view / hb-shape now accept following new arguments:
+
+  o --unicodes: takes a list of hex numbers that represent Unicode
+    codepoints.
+
+New API:
++hb_face_get_table_tags()
++hb_font_set_ptem()
++hb_font_get_ptem()
++hb_ft_font_changed()
+
+
 Overview of changes leading to 1.5.1
 Tuesday, September 5, 2017
 ====================================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 7b947f2..5b0797f 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.64])
 AC_INIT([HarfBuzz],
-        [1.5.1],
+        [1.6.0],
         [https://github.com/behdad/harfbuzz/issues/new],
         [harfbuzz],
         [http://harfbuzz.org/])
diff --git a/docs/harfbuzz-docs.xml b/docs/harfbuzz-docs.xml
index d77ea65..12df833 100644
--- a/docs/harfbuzz-docs.xml
+++ b/docs/harfbuzz-docs.xml
@@ -196,6 +196,10 @@
         <title>Index of new symbols in 1.5.0</title>
         <xi:include href="xml/api-index-1.5.0.xml"><xi:fallback /></xi:include>
       </index>
+      <index id="api-index-1-6-0" role="1.6.0">
+        <title>Index of new symbols in 1.6.0</title>
+        <xi:include href="xml/api-index-1.6.0.xml"><xi:fallback /></xi:include>
+      </index>
       <index id="deprecated-api-index" role="deprecated">
         <title>Index of deprecated API</title>
         <xi:include href="xml/api-index-deprecated.xml"><xi:fallback /></xi:include>