diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0a793c6badb..81d4e8571f2 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 requires = [
-  "setuptools >= 42",
+  "setuptools >= 56",
   "wheel",
   "setuptools_scm[toml]>=3.4"
 ]
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 01d1b7598fc..d1b6e5fa378 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ name = napari
 url = https://napari.org
 download_url = https://github.com/napari/napari
 license = BSD 3-Clause
-license_file = LICENSE
+license_files = LICENSE
 description = n-dimensional array viewer in Python
 long_description = file: README.md
 long_description_content_type = text/markdown