diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+Copyright (c) 2012 Michael Snoyman, Adam Bergmark
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/Setup.hs b/Setup.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Setup.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+import Distribution.Simple
+main = defaultMain
diff --git a/fay-text.cabal b/fay-text.cabal
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fay-text.cabal
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+name:                fay-text
+version:             0.1.0.0
+synopsis:            Fay Text type represented as JavaScript strings
+description:         Text type represented as JavaScript strings for Fay and Data.Text for GHC. Use with OverloadedStrings and RebindableSyntax to have Fay treat string literals as Text.
+homepage:            https://github.com/faylang/fay-text
+bug-reports:         https://github.com/faylang/fay-text/issues
+license:             MIT
+license-file:        LICENSE
+author:              Michael Snoyman, Adam Bergmark
+maintainer:          adam@edea.se
+copyright:           2013 Michael Snoyman, Adam Bergmark
+category:            Data, Fay, Text
+build-type:          Simple
+cabal-version:       >=1.8
+data-files: src/Fay/Text.hs
+
+source-repository head
+  type: git
+  location: https://github.com/faylang/fay-text.git
+
+library
+  exposed: False
+  hs-source-dirs: src
+  exposed-modules: Fay.Text
+  build-depends: text
+               , fay      >= 0.17
+               , fay-base >= 0.17
diff --git a/src/Fay/Text.hs b/src/Fay/Text.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Fay/Text.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE CPP                #-}
+{-# LANGUAGE DeriveDataTypeable #-}
+-- | Module to be shared between server and client.
+--
+-- This module must be valid for both GHC and Fay.
+--
+-- For GHC this is an alias for Data.Text, for Fay it's an opaque data type represented by JavaScript strings.
+--
+module Fay.Text where
+
+import           Prelude
+#ifdef FAY
+import           FFI
+#else
+import           Fay.FFI
+#endif
+import           Data.Data
+
+#ifdef FAY
+
+data Text = Text
+    deriving (Show, Read, Eq, Typeable, Data)
+
+pack :: String -> Text
+pack = ffi "%1"
+
+unpack :: Text -> String
+unpack = ffi "%1"
+
+#else
+
+import qualified Data.Text as T
+
+type Text = T.Text
+
+pack :: String -> Text
+pack = T.pack
+
+unpack :: Text -> String
+unpack = T.unpack
+
+#endif
+
+-- | Have this in scope with the OverloadedStrings and BindableSyntax extensions
+-- and Fay will replace all string literals with Text.
+fromString :: String -> Text
+fromString = pack