diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 2756e11ae8..23452dfa27 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -965,7 +965,7 @@ checksum = "94300abf3f1ae2e2b8ffb7b58043de3d399c73fa6f4b73826402a5c457614dbe"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "rustworkx"
-version = "0.18.0"
+version = "0.18.1"
 dependencies = [
  "fixedbitset",
  "flate2",
@@ -997,7 +997,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "rustworkx-core"
-version = "0.18.0"
+version = "0.18.1"
 dependencies = [
  "fixedbitset",
  "foldhash",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index a2f0c334d8..227488fb0d 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ members = [
 ]
 
 [workspace.package]
-version = "0.18.0"
+version = "0.18.1"
 edition = "2024"
 rust-version = "1.85"
 authors = ["Matthew Treinish <mtreinish@kortar.org>"]
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ rayon.workspace = true
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = "1.0"
 smallvec = { version = "1.0", features = ["union"] }
-rustworkx-core = { path = "rustworkx-core", version = "=0.18.0" }
+rustworkx-core = { path = "rustworkx-core", version = "=0.18.1" }
 flate2 = "1.0.35"
 pest = "2.8"
 pest_derive = "2.8"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index e5c6494d9f..476305d76b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [project]
 name = "rustworkx"
-version = "0.18.0"
+version = "0.18.1"
 description = "A High-Performance Graph Library for Python"
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 dependencies = [
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ extend-ignore-words-re = [
 manylinux-x86_64-image = "manylinux2014"
 manylinux-i686-image = "manylinux2014"
 skip = "pp* cp314t-win* c*t-*i686 cp314t-*s390x *win32 *musllinux*i686"
+before-test = 'pip install --prefer-binary "numpy<2.5.0"'
 test-requires = "networkx"
 test-command = "python -m unittest discover {project}/tests"
 before-build = 'pip install -U "maturin>=1.9.0,<2.0"'
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/all-simple-paths-self-loops-4d5e9a247d39d6a4.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/0.18/all-simple-paths-self-loops-4d5e9a247d39d6a4.yaml
similarity index 100%
rename from releasenotes/notes/all-simple-paths-self-loops-4d5e9a247d39d6a4.yaml
rename to releasenotes/notes/0.18/all-simple-paths-self-loops-4d5e9a247d39d6a4.yaml
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/fix-initial-hole-longest_path_length-1e0180d344a132d2.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/0.18/fix-initial-hole-longest_path_length-1e0180d344a132d2.yaml
similarity index 100%
rename from releasenotes/notes/fix-initial-hole-longest_path_length-1e0180d344a132d2.yaml
rename to releasenotes/notes/0.18/fix-initial-hole-longest_path_length-1e0180d344a132d2.yaml
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/0.18/prepare-0.18.1-8380983cdd8b041b.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/0.18/prepare-0.18.1-8380983cdd8b041b.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2ae4d72a6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/0.18/prepare-0.18.1-8380983cdd8b041b.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+prelude: |
+  Rustworkx 0.18.1 is a bugfix patch release that fixes several issues
+  identified since the 0.18.0 release.
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/pyodide-pypi-wheels-06f63330094bac2b.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/0.18/pyodide-pypi-wheels-06f63330094bac2b.yaml
similarity index 100%
rename from releasenotes/notes/pyodide-pypi-wheels-06f63330094bac2b.yaml
rename to releasenotes/notes/0.18/pyodide-pypi-wheels-06f63330094bac2b.yaml