diff --git a/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst b/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
index 9318a750919b67f..7a3786eff17312c 100644
--- a/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
@@ -862,6 +862,12 @@ For an example of the usage of queues for interprocess communication see
 
       Put *item* into the queue.
 
+   .. method:: close()
+
+      Close the queue.
+
+      .. versionadded:: 3.7
+
 
 .. class:: JoinableQueue([maxsize])
 
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
index 023d0a1b238089d..14e6f65aec0ded6 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
@@ -210,6 +210,14 @@ math
 New :func:`~math.remainder` function, implementing the IEEE 754-style remainder
 operation. (Contributed by Mark Dickinson in :issue:`29962`.)
 
+
+multiprocessing
+---------------
+
+The :class:`multiprocessing.SimpleQueue` class has a new
+:meth:`~multiprocessing.SimpleQueue.close` method to explicitly close the
+queue.
+
 os
 --
 
diff --git a/Lib/multiprocessing/queues.py b/Lib/multiprocessing/queues.py
index 513807cafecb6dd..e302e7c6959e3ba 100644
--- a/Lib/multiprocessing/queues.py
+++ b/Lib/multiprocessing/queues.py
@@ -319,6 +319,10 @@ def __init__(self, *, ctx):
         else:
             self._wlock = ctx.Lock()
 
+    def close(self):
+        self._reader.close()
+        self._writer.close()
+
     def empty(self):
         return not self._poll()
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py b/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py
index 0515730d14a853f..0ecf9aec5d0c9a8 100644
--- a/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py
+++ b/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py
@@ -4236,6 +4236,20 @@ def test_empty(self):
 
         proc.join()
 
+    def test_close(self):
+        queue = multiprocessing.SimpleQueue()
+        queue.close()
+        # closing a queue twice should not fail
+        queue.close()
+
+    # Test specific to CPython since it tests private attributes
+    @test.support.cpython_only
+    def test_closed(self):
+        queue = multiprocessing.SimpleQueue()
+        queue.close()
+        self.assertTrue(queue._reader.closed)
+        self.assertTrue(queue._writer.closed)
+
 #
 # Mixins
 #