diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 0993934a..196c9a92 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -23,3 +23,6 @@
 [submodule "archivebox/vendor/django-taggit"]
 	path = archivebox/vendor/django-taggit
 	url = https://github.com/jazzband/django-taggit
+[submodule "archivebox/vendor/python-atomicwrites"]
+	path = archivebox/vendor/python-atomicwrites
+	url = https://github.com/untitaker/python-atomicwrites
diff --git a/archivebox/system.py b/archivebox/system.py
index 3adf2e73..3c43eeaf 100644
--- a/archivebox/system.py
+++ b/archivebox/system.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ from typing import Optional, Union, Set, Tuple
 from subprocess import run as subprocess_run
 
 from crontab import CronTab
-from atomicwrites import atomic_write as lib_atomic_write
+from .vendor.atomicwrites import atomic_write as lib_atomic_write
 
 from .util import enforce_types, ExtendedEncoder
 from .config import OUTPUT_PERMISSIONS
diff --git a/archivebox/vendor/atomicwrites.py b/archivebox/vendor/atomicwrites.py
new file mode 120000
index 00000000..73abfe4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/archivebox/vendor/atomicwrites.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+python-atomicwrites/atomicwrites/__init__.py
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/archivebox/vendor/python-atomicwrites b/archivebox/vendor/python-atomicwrites
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..c35cd32e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/archivebox/vendor/python-atomicwrites
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit c35cd32eb364d5a4210e64bf38fd1a55f329f316
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 15303f94..b4e198d8 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ INSTALL_REQUIRES = [
     # if there is no apt python3-package equivalent, then vendor it instead in
     # ./archivebox/vendor/
     "requests>=2.24.0",
-    "atomicwrites>=1.4.0",
     "mypy-extensions>=0.4.3",
     "django>=3.1.3",
     "django-extensions>=3.0.3",
diff --git a/stdeb.cfg b/stdeb.cfg
index cd191a42..1cd19c1b 100644
--- a/stdeb.cfg
+++ b/stdeb.cfg
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@ Package3: archivebox
 Suite: focal
 Suite3: focal
 Build-Depends: dh-python, python3-pip, python3-setuptools, python3-wheel, python3-stdeb
-Depends3: nodejs, chromium-browser, wget, curl, git, ffmpeg, youtube-dl, python3-atomicwrites, python3-croniter, python3-crontab, python3-dateparser, python3-django, python3-django-extensions, python3-django-jsonfield, python3-mypy-extensions, python3-requests, python3-w3lib, ripgrep
+Depends3: nodejs, chromium-browser, wget, curl, git, ffmpeg, youtube-dl, python3-croniter, python3-crontab, python3-dateparser, python3-django, python3-django-extensions, python3-django-jsonfield, python3-mypy-extensions, python3-requests, python3-w3lib, ripgrep
 XS-Python-Version: >= 3.7
 Setup-Env-Vars: DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck