diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a9ff0851..6b10ad26 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,54 +1,70 @@
+from os import path
 from maestrowf import __version__
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
+
+def load_readme():
+    """
+    Load the readme from the root of the package directory.
+
+    :returns: A string containing the contents of README.md.
+    """
+    pkg_path = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
+    with open(path.join(pkg_path, 'README.md')) as f:
+        long_description = f.read()
+
+    return long_description
+
+
 setup(
-  name='maestrowf',
-  description='A tool to easily orchestrate general computational workflows '
-  'both locally and on supercomputers.',
-  version=__version__,
-  author='Francesco Di Natale',
-  maintainer='Francesco Di Natale',
-  author_email='dinatale3@llnl.gov',
-  url='https://github.com/llnl/maestrowf',
-  license='MIT License',
-  packages=find_packages(),
-  entry_points={
-    'console_scripts': [
-        'maestro = maestrowf.maestro:main',
-        'conductor = maestrowf.conductor:main',
-    ]
-  },
-  install_requires=[
-    'PyYAML>=4.2b1',
-    'six',
-    "filelock",
-    "tabulate",
-    "enum34 ; python_version<'3.4'",
-    "dill",
-    "jsonschema>=3.2.0",
-    "coloredlogs",
-    "chainmap ; python_version<'3'",
-  ],
-  extras_require={},
-  long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
-  download_url='https://pypi.org/project/maestrowf/',
-  python_requires='>=2.7, !=3.0.*, !=3.1.*, !=3.2.*, !=3.3.*, !=3.4.*',
-  classifiers=[
-    'Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable',
-    'Operating System :: Unix',
-    'Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X',
-    'Intended Audience :: Developers',
-    'Intended Audience :: Education',
-    'Intended Audience :: Science/Research',
-    'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering',
-    'Topic :: System :: Distributed Computing',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7',
-  ],
-  package_data={
-        'maestrowf': ['maestrowf/datastructures/schemas.json'],
-  },
-  include_package_data=True,
+    name='maestrowf',
+    description='A tool to easily orchestrate general computational workflows '
+    'both locally and on supercomputers.',
+    version=__version__,
+    author='Francesco Di Natale',
+    maintainer='Francesco Di Natale',
+    author_email='dinatale3@llnl.gov',
+    url='https://github.com/llnl/maestrowf',
+    license='MIT License',
+    packages=find_packages(),
+    entry_points={
+        'console_scripts': [
+                'maestro = maestrowf.maestro:main',
+                'conductor = maestrowf.conductor:main',
+        ]
+    },
+    install_requires=[
+        'PyYAML>=4.2b1',
+        'six',
+        "filelock",
+        "tabulate",
+        "enum34 ; python_version<'3.4'",
+        "dill",
+        "jsonschema>=3.2.0",
+        "coloredlogs",
+        "chainmap ; python_version<'3'",
+    ],
+    extras_require={},
+    long_description=load_readme(),
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
+    download_url='https://pypi.org/project/maestrowf/',
+    python_requires='>=2.7, !=3.0.*, !=3.1.*, !=3.2.*, !=3.3.*, !=3.4.*',
+    classifiers=[
+        'Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable',
+        'Operating System :: Unix',
+        'Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X',
+        'Intended Audience :: Developers',
+        'Intended Audience :: Education',
+        'Intended Audience :: Science/Research',
+        'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering',
+        'Topic :: System :: Distributed Computing',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7',
+    ],
+    package_data={
+                'maestrowf': ['maestrowf/datastructures/schemas.json'],
+    },
+    include_package_data=True,
 )