diff --git a/.github/workflows/pkgdown.yaml b/.github/workflows/pkgdown.yaml
index f36a8b1cec..f5660a3d42 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pkgdown.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pkgdown.yaml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       GITHUB_PAT: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
 
       - name: Install libgeos on Linux
         if: runner.os == 'Linux'
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           working-directory: "apis/r"
 
-      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v1
+      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v2
         with:
           use-public-rspm: true
           working-directory: "apis/r"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/r-cmd-check.yaml b/.github/workflows/r-cmd-check.yaml
index c7fd13b623..736325386c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/r-cmd-check.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/r-cmd-check.yaml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ jobs:
       _R_CHECK_FORCE_SUGGESTS_: false
 
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
 
       - name: Install libgeos on Linux
         if: runner.os == 'Linux'
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-pandoc@v1
 
-      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v1
+      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v2
         with:
           r-version: ${{ matrix.config.r }}
           http-user-agent: ${{ matrix.config.http-user-agent }}
diff --git a/apis/r/DESCRIPTION b/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
index a9f02e949c..905ddb7c91 100644
--- a/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Description: Interface for working with 'TileDB'-based Stack of Matrices,
     from and export to in-memory formats used by popular toolchains like
     'Seurat', 'Bioconductor', and even 'AnnData' using the companion Python
     package.
-Version: 0.1.16.9001
+Version: 0.1.19
 Authors@R: c(
     person(given = "Aaron",
            family = "Wolen",
diff --git a/apis/r/NEWS.md b/apis/r/NEWS.md
index dcd350f1e3..13a4a68544 100644
--- a/apis/r/NEWS.md
+++ b/apis/r/NEWS.md
@@ -1,11 +1,22 @@
-# tiledbsoma (development version)
+# tiledbsoma 0.1.19
+
+## Changes
+
+- Updated `setup-r` GitHub Action to v2 and `checkout` to v3
+
+# tiledbsoma 0.1.18
 
 ## Features
 
 - The `AnnotationMatrix`'s `to_matrix()` method now supports batched reads via the `batch_mode` argument. This functionality can also be leveraged from `SOMA`'s  `get_seurat_dimreductions_list()` and `get_seurat_dimreduction()` methods.
 
+## Changes
+
+- Decreased capacity of `AssayMatrix` arrays from 100,000 to 1,000 to improve remote-read performance (#543)
+
 ## Fixes
-* Don't use default assay name when recreating a `Seurat` object (thanks @dan11mcguire)
+
+- Don't use default assay name when recreating a `Seurat` object (thanks @dan11mcguire)
 
 # tiledbsoma 0.1.12