diff --git a/kademlia/__init__.py b/kademlia/__init__.py
index c70ac2c..c0fd4b4 100644
--- a/kademlia/__init__.py
+++ b/kademlia/__init__.py
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 Kademlia is a Python implementation of the Kademlia protocol which
 utilizes the asyncio library.
 """
-__version__ = "2.1"
+__version__ = "2.2"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4102e1c..b3ec427 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ setup(
     name="kademlia",
     version=kademlia.__version__,
     description="Kademlia is a distributed hash table for decentralized peer-to-peer computer networks.",
-    long_description=open("README.md").read(),
+    long_description=open("README.md", encoding='utf-8').read(),
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
     author="Brian Muller",
     author_email="bamuller@gmail.com",
     license="MIT",