diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 0967abd62474..08c93310126d 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ requires-dist =
     Jinja2
     PyYAML
     raven
-    readme>=0.1.1
+    readme>=0.2.0
     redis
     six
     SQLAlchemy
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 9498b5299ec9..4fd007712fe5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ def recursive_glob(path, pattern, cutdirs=0):
     "Jinja2",
     "PyYAML",
     "raven",
-    "readme>=0.1.1",
+    "readme>=0.2.0",
     "redis",
     "six",
     "SQLAlchemy",
diff --git a/warehouse/packaging/views.py b/warehouse/packaging/views.py
index 02839b1e5e35..c440e63d3334 100644
--- a/warehouse/packaging/views.py
+++ b/warehouse/packaging/views.py
@@ -78,7 +78,10 @@ def project_detail(app, request, project_name, version=None):
 
     if release.get("description"):
         # Render the project description
-        description_html = readme.rst.render(release["description"])
+        description_html, rendered = readme.rst.render(release["description"])
+
+        if not rendered:
+            description_html = description_html.replace("\n", "<br>")
 
         if app.config.camo:
             description_html = camouflage_images(