diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-smart-open/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-smart-open/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..483e55a6b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-smart-open/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Copyright 2013-2019 Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC and other
+# Spack Project Developers. See the top-level COPYRIGHT file for details.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
+
+from spack import *
+
+
+class PySmartOpen(PythonPackage):
+    """smart_open is a Python 2 & Python 3 library for efficient streaming of
+       very large files from/to S3, HDFS, WebHDFS, HTTP, or local storage. It
+       supports transparent, on-the-fly (de-)compression for a variety of
+       different formats."""
+
+    homepage = "https://github.com/piskvorky/smart_open"
+    url      = "https://github.com/RaRe-Technologies/smart_open/archive/1.8.4.tar.gz"
+
+    version('1.8.4', sha256='788e07f035defcbb62e3c1e313329a70b0976f4f65406ee767db73ad5d2d04f9')
+
+    depends_on('py-setuptools', type='build')
+    depends_on('py-boto3', type=('build', 'run'))