diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..acb118c86e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.flake8
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# TODO: incorporate this into pyproject.toml if flake8 supports it in the future.
+# See https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8/issues/234
+[flake8]
+# see https://pycodestyle.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro.html#error-codes
+# for error codes. The ones we ignore are:
+#  W503: line break before binary operator
+#  W504: line break after binary operator
+#  E203: whitespace before ':' (which is contrary to pep8?)
+#  E731: do not assign a lambda expression, use a def
+#  E501: Line too long (black enforces this for us)
+ignore=W503,W504,E203,E731,E501
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index c24786c3b3..76d14eb642 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ include book.toml
 include pyproject.toml
 recursive-include changelog.d *
 
+include .flake8
 prune .circleci
 prune .github
 prune .ci
diff --git a/changelog.d/12052.misc b/changelog.d/12052.misc
index fbaff67e95..11755ae61b 100644
--- a/changelog.d/12052.misc
+++ b/changelog.d/12052.misc
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Move `isort` configuration to `pyproject.toml`.
+Move configuration out of `setup.cfg`.
diff --git a/changelog.d/12059.misc b/changelog.d/12059.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9ba4759d99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/12059.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Move configuration out of `setup.cfg`.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index a0506572d9..6213f3265b 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-[trial]
-test_suite = tests
-
 [check-manifest]
 ignore =
     .git-blame-ignore-revs
@@ -10,12 +7,3 @@ ignore =
     pylint.cfg
     tox.ini
 
-[flake8]
-# see https://pycodestyle.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro.html#error-codes
-# for error codes. The ones we ignore are:
-#  W503: line break before binary operator
-#  W504: line break after binary operator
-#  E203: whitespace before ':' (which is contrary to pep8?)
-#  E731: do not assign a lambda expression, use a def
-#  E501: Line too long (black enforces this for us)
-ignore=W503,W504,E203,E731,E501