diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index f104324..0000000
--- a/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/ontobio.svg)](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ontobio)
-
-# ontobio - a python API for working with ontologies and associations
-
-This module provides objects and utility methods for working with
-ontologies and associations of entities (genes, variants, etc) to
-ontology classes.
-
-The ontologies and associations can either be local files or provided
-by remote services (currently the OntoBee SPARQL service for
-ontologies and a Monarch or GO Golr service for associations).
-
-# Documentation
-
-Documentation is on [readthedocs](https://ontobio.readthedocs.io)
-
-# Notebooks
-
-See the [Jupyter Notebooks](http://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/biolink/ontobio/tree/master/notebooks/) for code examples
-
-# Mailing list
-
- * [biolink-api google group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/biolink-api)
-
-
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f81c4d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+|PyPI|
+
+ontobio - a python API for working with ontologies and associations
+===================================================================
+
+This module provides objects and utility methods for working with
+ontologies and associations of entities (genes, variants, etc) to
+ontology classes.
+
+The ontologies and associations can either be local files or provided by
+remote services (currently the OntoBee SPARQL service for ontologies and
+a Monarch or GO Golr service for associations).
+
+Documentation
+=============
+
+Documentation is on `readthedocs <https://ontobio.readthedocs.io>`__
+
+Notebooks
+=========
+
+See the `Jupyter
+Notebooks <http://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/biolink/ontobio/tree/master/notebooks/>`__
+for code examples
+
+Mailing list
+============
+
+-  `biolink-api google
+   group <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/biolink-api>`__
+
+.. |PyPI| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/ontobio.svg
+   :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ontobio
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index b88034e..5aef279 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 [metadata]
-description-file = README.md
+description-file = README.rst
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1984e97..379010e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -13,20 +13,6 @@
 pattern = re.compile(r"^__version__ = ['\"]([^'\"]*)['\"]", re.MULTILINE)
 version = pattern.search(text).group(1)
 
-# long_description
-readme_path = os.path.join(directory, 'README.md')
-try:
-    # copied from dhimmel/obonet:
-    # Try to create an reStructuredText long_description from README.md
-    args = 'pandoc', '--from', 'markdown', '--to', 'rst', readme_path
-    long_description = subprocess.check_output(args)
-    long_description = long_description.decode()
-except Exception as error:
-    # Fallback to markdown (unformatted on PyPI) long_description
-    print('README.md conversion to reStructuredText failed. Error:')
-    print(error)
-    with open(readme_path) as read_file:
-        long_description = read_file.read()
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name='ontobio',
@@ -35,7 +21,7 @@
     author_email='cmungall@gmail.com',
     url='https://github.com/biolink/ontobio',
     description='Library for working with OBO Library Ontologies and associations',
-    long_description=long_description,
+    long_description=open("README.rst").read(),
     license='BSD',
     #packages=['ontobio'],
     packages=setuptools.find_packages(),