diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c3f48702cf4f..7dea55b8746a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,25 @@
 ## [Unreleased][unreleased]
 
+## [0.9.7] - 2016/12/21
+
+### Fixed
+
+- Fixed a performance issue in Cassandra by removing an old workaround that was
+  forcing Cassandra to use LuaSocket instead of cosockets.
+  [#1916](https://github.com/Mashape/kong/pull/1916)
+- Fixed an issue that was causing a recursive attempt to stop Kong's services
+  when an error was occurring.
+  [#1877](https://github.com/Mashape/kong/pull/1877)
+- Custom plugins are now properly loaded again.
+  [#1910](https://github.com/Mashape/kong/pull/1910)
+- Plugins:
+  - Galileo: properly encode empty arrays.
+    [#1909](https://github.com/Mashape/kong/pull/1909)
+  - OAuth 2: implements a missing Postgres migration for `redirect_uri` in
+    every OAuth 2 credential. [#1911](https://github.com/Mashape/kong/pull/1911)
+  - OAuth 2: safely parse the request body even when no data has been sent.
+    [#1915](https://github.com/Mashape/kong/pull/1915)
+
 ## [0.9.6] - 2016/11/29
 
 ### Fixed
@@ -792,7 +812,8 @@ First version running with Cassandra.
 - CLI `bin/kong` script.
 - Database migrations (using `db.lua`).
 
-[unreleased]: https://github.com/mashape/kong/compare/0.9.6...next
+[unreleased]: https://github.com/mashape/kong/compare/0.9.7...next
+[0.9.7]: https://github.com/mashape/kong/compare/0.9.6...0.9.7
 [0.9.6]: https://github.com/mashape/kong/compare/0.9.5...0.9.6
 [0.9.5]: https://github.com/mashape/kong/compare/0.9.4...0.9.5
 [0.9.4]: https://github.com/mashape/kong/compare/0.9.3...0.9.4
diff --git a/kong-0.9.6-0.rockspec b/kong-0.9.7-0.rockspec
similarity index 99%
rename from kong-0.9.6-0.rockspec
rename to kong-0.9.7-0.rockspec
index 1fd7999950ae..a7662d789873 100644
--- a/kong-0.9.6-0.rockspec
+++ b/kong-0.9.7-0.rockspec
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 package = "kong"
-version = "0.9.6-0"
+version = "0.9.7-0"
 supported_platforms = {"linux", "macosx"}
 source = {
   url = "git://github.com/Mashape/kong",
-  tag = "0.9.6"
+  tag = "0.9.7"
 }
 description = {
   summary = "Kong is a scalable and customizable API Management Layer built on top of Nginx.",
diff --git a/kong/meta.lua b/kong/meta.lua
index 3b447113e635..e8b137277892 100644
--- a/kong/meta.lua
+++ b/kong/meta.lua
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 local version = setmetatable({
   major = 0,
   minor = 9,
-  patch = 6,
+  patch = 7,
   pre_release = nil
 }, {
   __tostring = function(t)