diff --git a/numpydoc/_version.py b/numpydoc/_version.py
index 29654eec..fe918984 100644
--- a/numpydoc/_version.py
+++ b/numpydoc/_version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "1.8.0"
+__version__ = "1.9.0rc0.dev0"