diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
deleted file mode 100644
index 1ddcc2c8c..000000000
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-include CITATION.cff
-include pyproject.toml
-include docs/*.md
-include flopy/mf6/data/dfn/*.dfn
-include flopy/plot/mplstyle/*.mplstyle
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 639db8ecf..cc557a575 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = [
-    "setuptools >=61",
-]
-build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+requires = ["hatchling", "hatch-fancy-pypi-readme"]
+build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
 [project]
 name = "flopy"
@@ -36,9 +34,8 @@ dependencies = [
 dynamic = ["version", "readme"]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
-dev = ["flopy[build,lint,test,optional,doc]", "tach"]
-build = ["build", "twine"]
-lint = ["cffconvert", "codespell[toml] >=2.2.2", "ruff"]
+dev = ["flopy[lint,test,optional,doc]", "tach"]
+lint = ["ruff"]
 test = [
     "flopy[lint]",
     "coverage !=7.6.5",
@@ -100,20 +97,28 @@ Documentation = "https://flopy.readthedocs.io"
 "Bug Tracker" = "https://github.com/modflowpy/flopy/issues"
 "Source Code" = "https://github.com/modflowpy/flopy"
 
-[tool.setuptools]
-include-package-data = true
-zip-safe = false
+[tool.hatch.build.targets.sdist]
+only-include = [
+    "CITATION.cff",
+    "README.md",
+    "docs",
+    "flopy",
+]
+
+[tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
+packages = ["flopy"]
+
+[tool.hatch.metadata.hooks.fancy-pypi-readme]
+content-type = "text/markdown"
 
-[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
-version = {attr = "flopy.version.__version__"}
-readme = {file = ["docs/PyPI_release.md", "LICENSE.md"], content-type = "text/markdown"}
+[[tool.hatch.metadata.hooks.fancy-pypi-readme.fragments]]
+path = "docs/PyPI_release.md"
 
-[tool.setuptools.packages.find]
-include = ["flopy", "flopy.*"]
+[[tool.hatch.metadata.hooks.fancy-pypi-readme.fragments]]
+path = "LICENSE.md"
 
-[tool.setuptools.package-data]
-"flopy.mf6.data" = ["dfn/*.dfn"]
-"flopy.plot" = ["mplstyle/*.mplstyle"]
+[tool.hatch.version]
+path = "flopy/version.py"
 
 [tool.ruff]
 line-length = 88