diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # ChangeLog for yaml
 
+## 0.11.4.0
+
+* add `ToYaml` instance for `String` [#186](https://github.com/snoyberg/yaml/pull/186)
+
 ## 0.11.3.0
 
 * Don't wrap up async exceptions [#185](https://github.com/snoyberg/yaml/issues/185)
diff --git a/src/Data/Yaml/Builder.hs b/src/Data/Yaml/Builder.hs
--- a/src/Data/Yaml/Builder.hs
+++ b/src/Data/Yaml/Builder.hs
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@
     toYaml = array . map toYaml
 instance ToYaml Text where
     toYaml = string
-instance ToYaml String where
+instance {-# OVERLAPPING #-} ToYaml String where
     toYaml = string . T.pack
 instance ToYaml Int where
     toYaml i = YamlBuilder (EventScalar (S8.pack $ show i) NoTag PlainNoTag Nothing:)
diff --git a/yaml.cabal b/yaml.cabal
--- a/yaml.cabal
+++ b/yaml.cabal
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@
 --
 -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack
 --
--- hash: 4160e171cfd5a87614a9fbf40f548f75306e24d499c44f71c279d15f8c4e2c39
+-- hash: 1f75743c2fefefb33f6f3e8a51fce90cb3f286c975d205d7ded3789d5b15c488
 
 name:           yaml
-version:        0.11.3.0
+version:        0.11.4.0
 synopsis:       Support for parsing and rendering YAML documents.
 description:    README and API documentation are available at <https://www.stackage.org/package/yaml>
 category:       Data