diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 01364b02a5..ec3f220d95 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+# v8, "marie" is out! (27.09.2023) #
+We are happy to announce anvi'o v8, with the code name 'marie' after 'Marie Tharp'.
+
+After about 4,200 changes that introduced over 36,000 new lines of code, this stable release of anvi'o represents significant advancements over v7, and introduces many new features for integrated studies of microbial metabolism, genomic inversions, phylogeography of proteins, performance improvements, and fixes for known bugs.
+
+Please see the release notes [here](https://github.com/merenlab/anvio/releases/tag/v8), and our new installation instructions [here](http://anvio.org/install).
+***
+
+
 # Slack or someting else? (09.08.2022) #
 Additional restrictions in the free version of Slack makes us question whether we need a more appropriate solution.
 
diff --git a/anvio/__init__.py b/anvio/__init__.py
index c10b2a4ef5..01b37e9dcf 100644
--- a/anvio/__init__.py
+++ b/anvio/__init__.py
@@ -3,9 +3,8 @@
 
 """Lots of under-the-rug, operational garbage in here. Run. Run away."""
 
-anvio_version = '7.1-dev'
-anvio_codename = 'hope' # after Hope E. Hopps, https://sivb.org/awards/student-awards/hope-e-hopps-award.html
-                        # see the release notes for details: https://github.com/merenlab/anvio/releases/tag/v7
+anvio_version = '8'
+anvio_codename = 'marie' # after Marie Tharp -- see the release notes for details: https://github.com/merenlab/anvio/releases/tag/v8
 
 major_python_version_required = 3
 minor_python_version_required = 10
diff --git a/anvio/data/interactive/images/logo.png b/anvio/data/interactive/images/logo.png
index d41c0482d4..a4738ffd95 100644
Binary files a/anvio/data/interactive/images/logo.png and b/anvio/data/interactive/images/logo.png differ