diff --git a/apis/r/DESCRIPTION b/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
index 723b68dae3..ff5a6adb46 100644
--- a/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Description: Interface for working with 'TileDB'-based Stack of Matrices,
     like those commonly used for single cell data analysis. It is documented at
     <https://github.com/single-cell-data>; a formal specification available is at
     <https://github.com/single-cell-data/SOMA/blob/main/abstract_specification.md>.
-Version: 1.9.3.1
+Version: 1.9.4
 Authors@R: c(
     person(given = "Aaron", family = "Wolen",
            role = c("cre", "aut"), email = "aaron@tiledb.com",
diff --git a/apis/r/NEWS.md b/apis/r/NEWS.md
index a0b741bce8..07a77e3a5e 100644
--- a/apis/r/NEWS.md
+++ b/apis/r/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# 1.9.4
+
+* This release contains an in-progress blockwise iterator, work on which will be completed in a subsequent release.
+* Reverted nanoarrow use to vendored versions and refactored the use throughout R and adjusted the build steps accordingly.
+
 # 1.9.3
 
 * This release contains a single Python-only performance improvment