diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 686a1931a..189f27540 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@
 Change history for Coverage.py
 ==============================
 
+.. _changes_441:
+
+Unreleased
+----------
+
+(nothing yet)
+
+
 .. _changes_44:
 
 Version 4.4 --- 2017-05-07
diff --git a/coverage/version.py b/coverage/version.py
index f0a2fd4d0..8bf62a3b0 100644
--- a/coverage/version.py
+++ b/coverage/version.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # This file is exec'ed in setup.py, don't import anything!
 
 # Same semantics as sys.version_info.
-version_info = (4, 4, 0, 'final', 0)
+version_info = (4, 4, 1, 'alpha', 0)
 
 
 def _make_version(major, minor, micro, releaselevel, serial):