diff --git a/Doc/distutils/sourcedist.rst b/Doc/distutils/sourcedist.rst
index cc289c9..0ac8ef4 100644
--- a/Doc/distutils/sourcedist.rst
+++ b/Doc/distutils/sourcedist.rst
@@ -95,8 +95,9 @@
   distributions, but in the future there will be a standard for testing Python
   module distributions)
 
-* :file:`README.txt` (or :file:`README`), :file:`setup.py` (or whatever  you
-  called your setup script), and :file:`setup.cfg`
+* Any of the standard README files (:file:`README`, :file:`README.txt`,
+  or :file:`README.rst`), :file:`setup.py` (or whatever you called your setup
+  script), and :file:`setup.cfg`.
 
 * all files that matches the ``package_data`` metadata.
   See :ref:`distutils-installing-package-data`.
@@ -130,6 +131,9 @@
    :command:`sdist` will read a :file:`MANIFEST` file if no :file:`MANIFEST.in`
    exists, like it used to do.
 
+.. versionchanged:: 3.7
+   :file:`README.rst` is now included in the list of distutils standard READMEs.
+
 
 The manifest template has one command per line, where each command specifies a
 set of files to include or exclude from the source distribution.  For an
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
index b5107ea..875fc55 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
@@ -95,6 +95,13 @@
 Improved Modules
 ================
 
+distutils
+---------
+
+README.rst is now included in the list of distutils standard READMEs and
+therefore included in source distributions.
+(Contributed by Ryan Gonzalez in :issue:`11913`.)
+
 http.server
 -----------
 
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/command/sdist.py b/Lib/distutils/command/sdist.py
index 180e286..52eaa15 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/command/sdist.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/command/sdist.py
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@
 
     sub_commands = [('check', checking_metadata)]
 
-    READMES = 'README', 'README.txt'
+    READMES = ('README', 'README.txt', 'README.rst')
 
     def initialize_options(self):
         # 'template' and 'manifest' are, respectively, the names of
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 9b5150c..c780241 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- bpo-11913: README.rst is now included in the list of distutils standard
+  READMEs and therefore included in source distributions.
+
 - bpo-29914: Fixed default implementations of __reduce__ and __reduce_ex__().
   object.__reduce__() no longer takes arguments, object.__reduce_ex__() now
   requires one argument.
@@ -310,12 +313,12 @@
 - bpo-29694: Fixed race condition in pathlib mkdir with flags
   parents=True.  Patch by Armin Rigo.
 
-- bpo-29692: Fixed arbitrary unchaining of RuntimeError exceptions in 
+- bpo-29692: Fixed arbitrary unchaining of RuntimeError exceptions in
   contextlib.contextmanager.
   Patch by Siddharth Velankar.
 
 - bpo-26187: Test that sqlite3 trace callback is not called multiple
-  times when schema is changing.  Indirectly fixed by switching to 
+  times when schema is changing.  Indirectly fixed by switching to
   use sqlite3_prepare_v2() in bpo-9303.  Patch by Aviv Palivoda.
 
 - bpo-30017: Allowed calling the close() method of the zip entry writer object