diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e43ddbd1d..2a553b54f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.27)
 project(fwdpy11)
 
 set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@ endif()
 
 find_package(pybind11)
 message(STATUS "Found pybind11: ${pybind11_VERSION}")
-if(${pybind11_VERSION} VERSION_LESS '2.10.0')
-    message(FATAL_ERROR "pybind11 version must be >= '2.10.0'")
+if(${pybind11_VERSION} VERSION_LESS '2.11.1')
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "pybind11 version must be >= '2.11.1'")
 endif()
 add_definitions(-DPYBIND11_VERSION="${pybind11_VERSION}")
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8c55e08f6..eed7dc28b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 [build-system]
 # We need setup.cfg support, which setuptools indtroduced in 30.3.0.
-requires = ["setuptools>=30.3.0", "wheel", "setuptools_scm", "pybind11[global]==2.10.0"]
+requires = [
+    "setuptools>=30.3.0",
+    "wheel",
+    "setuptools_scm",
+    "pybind11[global]==2.11.1",
+]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [tool.setuptools_scm]
 write_to = "fwdpy11/_version.py"
diff --git a/requirements/conda_minimal_deps.txt b/requirements/conda_minimal_deps.txt
index c4b7b5751..44d998db4 100644
--- a/requirements/conda_minimal_deps.txt
+++ b/requirements/conda_minimal_deps.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 intervaltree
-pybind11==2.10.0
+pybind11==2.11.1
 numpy
 scipy
 attrs>=0.19.2
diff --git a/requirements/development.txt b/requirements/development.txt
index 975f9ba4f..c3b3c259c 100644
--- a/requirements/development.txt
+++ b/requirements/development.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # NOTE: any pinning should also be coordinated
 # with requirements.in and doc/requirements.in
 # and may require regenerating the .txt files.
-pybind11[global]==2.10.0
+pybind11[global]==2.11.1
 intervaltree
 numpy
 scipy
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index efa07ef34..3939d79f4 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ classifiers =
     License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v3 or later (GPLv3+)
 
 [options]
-packages = fwdpy11
 zip_safe = False  # https://mypy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installed_packages.html
 include_package_data = True
 python_requires = >=3.8, <3.12
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d1b36566d..91edbae6c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -78,7 +78,6 @@ def build_extension(self, ext):
         cmake_args = [
             "-DCMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=" + extdir,
             "-DCMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=" + parent + "/lib/",
-            "-DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=" + sys.executable,
             "-DCMAKE_BUILD=OFF",
         ]
 
@@ -186,5 +185,4 @@ def build_extension(self, ext):
     cmdclass={"build_ext": CMakeBuild},
     packages=PKGS,
     package_data=generated_package_data,
-    zip_safe=False,
 )