diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index db53d035..0b1e949b 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.woodstox</groupId>
     <artifactId>woodstox-core</artifactId>
-    <version>6.5.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>6.6.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <packaging>bundle</packaging>
     <name>Woodstox</name>
     <description>Woodstox is a high-performance XML processor that implements Stax (JSR-173),
diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION b/release-notes/VERSION
index 646750a0..a73d8c49 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Project: woodstox
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-6.5.2 (not yet released)
+6.6.0 (not yet released)
 
 - Update `stax2-api` dependency to 4.2.2
 - Update `oss-parent` dependency to 55 (from 50)