diff --git a/.github/workflows/make_release.yml b/.github/workflows/make_release.yml
index b3dd3983c05..6f990df1612 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/make_release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/make_release.yml
@@ -27,22 +27,27 @@ jobs:
           pip install wheel
           python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
       - name: Find Release Notes
+        id: release_notes
         run: |
           TAG="${GITHUB_REF/refs\/tags\/v/}"  # clean tag
           VER="${TAG/rc*/}"  # remove pre-release identifier
-          RELEASE_FILEPATH=docs/release/release_${VER//./_}.rst
+          RELEASE_NOTES="$(cat docs/release/release_${VER//./_}.rst)"
+          # https://github.community/t5/GitHub-Actions/set-output-Truncates-Multiline-Strings/m-p/38372/highlight/true#M3322
+          RELEASE_NOTES="${RELEASE_NOTES//'%'/'%25'}"
+          RELEASE_NOTES="${RELEASE_NOTES//$'\n'/'%0A'}"
+          RELEASE_NOTES="${RELEASE_NOTES//$'\r'/'%0D'}" 
           # https://help.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-commands-for-github-actions
           echo "::set-env name=tag::$TAG"
-          echo "::set-env name=release_filepath::$RELEASE_FILEPATH"
+          echo "::set-output name=contents::$RELEASE_NOTES"
       - name: Create Release
         id: create_release
-        uses: jbolda/create-release@v1.1.0  # switch to actions/create-release@latest once actions/create-release#50 merged
+        uses: actions/create-release@latest
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} # This token is provided by Actions, you do not need to create your own token
         with:
           tag_name: ${{ github.ref }}
           release_name: ${{ env.tag }}
-          bodyFromFile: ${{ env.release_filepath }}
+          body: ${{ steps.release_notes.outputs.contents }}
           draft: false
           prerelease: ${{ contains(github.ref, 'rc') }}
       - name: Upload Release Asset
@@ -50,7 +55,7 @@ jobs:
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
         with:
-          upload_url: ${{ steps.create_release.outputs.upload_url }}  # This pulls from the CREATE RELEASE step above, referencing it's ID to get its outputs object, which include a `upload_url`. See this blog post for more info: https://jasonet.co/posts/new-features-of-github-actions/#passing-data-to-future-steps 
+          upload_url: ${{ steps.create_release.outputs.upload_url }}
           asset_path: ./dist/napari-${{ env.tag }}.tar.gz
           asset_name: napari-${{ env.tag }}.tar.gz
           asset_content_type: application/gzip
diff --git a/docs/release/release_0_2_13.rst b/docs/release/release_0_2_13.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f2626c3f1a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/release/release_0_2_13.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+Announcement: napari 0.2.12
+===========================
+
+We're happy to announce the release of napari 0.2.12!
+napari is a fast, interactive, multi-dimensional image viewer for Python.
+It's designed for browsing, annotating, and analyzing large multi-dimensional
+images. It's built on top of Qt (for the GUI), vispy (for performant GPU-based
+rendering), and the scientific Python stack (numpy, scipy).
+
+
+For more information, examples, and documentation, please visit our website:
+https://github.com/napari/napari
+
+New Features
+************
+- Add clickable color swatch with QColorDialog (#832)
+- Implement pluggy as plugin manager (#908)
+- Allow toggle theme from GUI (#943)
+- Add "Screenshot" option to File menu (#944)
+
+Improvements
+************
+- Allow 3D point selection via API (#907)
+- Add show param to Viewer (#961)
+- Make mouse drag attributes private in qt_layerlist (#974)
+- Rename `viewer` attribute on QtViewerDockWidget to `qt_viewer`(#975)
+- Allow LayerList to be initialized by passing in a list of layers (#979)
+- Rename `object` to `item` in list input arguments (#980)
+- Add layers.events.changed event (#982)
+
+Bugfixes
+********
+- Fix add points to empty layer (#933)
+- Fix points thumbnail (#934)
+- Fix 4D ellipses (#950)
+- Fix Points highlight bug index (Points-data6-3 test) (#972)
+- Fix labels colormap by updating computation of low discrepancy images (#985)
+- Pin jupyter-client<6.0.0 (#997)
+
+Support
+*******
+- Sphinx docs restructuring (create space for dev-focused prose) (#942)
+- Fixes broken tutorials links (#946)
+- Remove 'in-depth' descriptor for tutorials (#949)
+- Flatten auto-generated docs repo (#954)
+- Fix bash codeblock in README.md (#956)
+- Abstract the construction of view/viewermodel (#957)
+- Add docstrings to qt_layerlist.py (#958)
+- Fix docs url (#960)
+- Fix docs script (#963)
+- Fix docs version tag (#964)
+- Disallow sphinx 2.4.0; bug fixed in 2.4.1 (#965)
+- Remove duplicated imports in setup.py (#969)
+- Fix viewer view_* func signature parity (#976)
+- Fix ability to test released distributions (#1002)
+- Fix recursive-include in manifest.in (#1003)
+
+11 authors added to this release [alphabetical by first name or login]
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+- Genevieve Buckley
+- Hagai Har-Gil
+- Juan Nunez-Iglesias
+- Justin Kiggins
+- Kevin Yamauchi
+- Kira Evans
+- Nicholas Sofroniew
+- Peter Boone
+- Talley Lambert
+- Tony Tung
+- Trevor Manz
+
+
+10 reviewers added to this release [alphabetical by first name or login]
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+- Ahmet Can Solak
+- Clinton Roy
+- Genevieve Buckley
+- Juan Nunez-Iglesias
+- Kevin Yamauchi
+- Kira Evans
+- Nicholas Sofroniew
+- Peter Boone
+- Talley Lambert
+- Tony Tung