diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7dc96c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools>=61.2", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=7"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+# Copyright (c) 2014 SeatGeek
+# This file is part of thefuzz.
+
+[project]
+name = "thefuzz"
+authors = [{name = "Adam Cohen", email = "adam@seatgeek.com"}]
+license = {text = "GPL-2.0-only"}
+description = "Fuzzy string matching in python"
+readme = "README.rst"
+classifiers = [
+    "Intended Audience :: Developers",
+    "License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v2 (GPLv2)",
+    "Programming Language :: Python",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only",
+]
+urls = {Homepage = "https://github.com/seatgeek/thefuzz"}
+dynamic = ["version"]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+speedup = ["python-levenshtein>=0.12"]
+
+[tool.setuptools]
+packages = ["thefuzz"]
+zip-safe = true
+include-package-data = false
+
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
diff --git a/release b/release
index 5020d6e..0dc1881 100755
--- a/release
+++ b/release
@@ -13,8 +13,13 @@ YELLOW="\033[0;33m"   # yellow
 MAGENTA="\033[0;35m"  # magenta
 CYAN="\033[0;36m"     # cyan
 
-# ensure wheel is available
-pip install wheel > /dev/null
+# ensure the needed deps are available
+pip install --upgrade wheel build setuptools setuptools_scm > /dev/null
+
+if [[ "$PUBLIC" == "true" ]]; then
+    pip install --upgrade twine > /dev/null
+fi
+
 
 # ensure Pygment is available
 pip install Pygments > /dev/null
@@ -134,11 +139,12 @@ git push -q origin master && git push -q --tags
 if [[ "$PUBLIC" == "true" ]]; then
     echo -e "${YELLOW}--->${COLOR_OFF} Creating python release"
     cp README.rst README
-    python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel upload > /dev/null
+    python -m build > dev.null
+    twine upload ./dist/* > /dev/null
     rm README
 else
     echo -e "${YELLOW}--->${COLOR_OFF} Creating local python dist and wheel for manual release"
-    python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel > /dev/null
+    python -m build > dev.null
 fi
 
 echo -e "\n${CYAN}RELEASED VERSION ${next_version}${COLOR_OFF}\n"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100644
index a4e94bb..0000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-
-# Copyright (c) 2014 SeatGeek
-
-# This file is part of thefuzz.
-
-from thefuzz import __version__
-import os
-
-try:
-    from setuptools import setup
-except ImportError:
-    from distutils.core import setup
-
-
-def open_file(fname):
-    return open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), fname))
-
-
-setup(
-    name='thefuzz',
-    version=__version__,
-    author='Adam Cohen',
-    author_email='adam@seatgeek.com',
-    packages=['thefuzz'],
-    extras_require={'speedup': ['python-levenshtein>=0.12']},
-    url='https://github.com/seatgeek/thefuzz',
-    license="GPLv2",
-    classifiers=[
-        'Intended Audience :: Developers',
-        'License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v2 (GPLv2)',
-        'Programming Language :: Python',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only',
-    ],
-    description='Fuzzy string matching in python',
-    long_description=open_file('README.rst').read(),
-    zip_safe=True,
-)