diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 117a8922..73f4ab4f 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: RMariaDB
 Title: Database Interface and MariaDB Driver
-Version: 1.3.1.9007
+Version: 1.3.1.9008
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Kirill", "Müller", , "kirill@cynkra.com", role = c("aut", "cre"),
            comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-1416-3412")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 76cf585d..b43ddfc9 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 <!-- NEWS.md is maintained by https://fledge.cynkra.com, contributors should not edit this file -->
 
+# RMariaDB 1.3.1.9008 (2024-05-02)
+
+## Bug fixes
+
+- `dbWriteTable()` and `dbAppendTable()` on a connection with `load_data_local_infile = TRUE` uses the `utf8mb4` instead of the more restricted `utf8mb3` encoding (@ecoffingould, #332, #333).
+
+
 # RMariaDB 1.3.1.9007 (2024-04-16)
 
 ## Documentation