diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 0ca960c5..6bdebd23 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+Noteworthy changes in version 1.21.0 (unreleased)
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+
 Noteworthy changes in version 1.20.0 (2023-04-20)
 -------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d1b9acab..5db75ad1 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ min_automake_version="1.14"
 # for the LT versions.
 m4_define([mym4_package],[gpgme])
 m4_define([mym4_major], [1])
-m4_define([mym4_minor], [20])
+m4_define([mym4_minor], [21])
 m4_define([mym4_micro], [0])
 
 # Below is m4 magic to extract and compute the git revision number,