diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 933a36a..3f864f3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 # Changelog
 Notable changes to the smbus2 project are recorded here.
 
+## [0.2.3] - 2019-01-10
+### Fixed
+- Incorrect `i2c_msg` created in Python 3.x if str input contains ascii chars >= 128. 
+
 ## [0.2.2] - 2019-01-03
 ### Added
 - SMBus Quick command.
@@ -33,6 +37,7 @@ Notable changes to the smbus2 project are recorded here.
 First published version.
 
 
+[0.2.3]: https://github.com/kplindegaard/smbus2/compare/0.2.2...0.2.3
 [0.2.2]: https://github.com/kplindegaard/smbus2/compare/0.2.1...0.2.2
 [0.2.1]: https://github.com/kplindegaard/smbus2/compare/0.2.0...0.2.1
 [0.2.0]: https://github.com/kplindegaard/smbus2/compare/0.1.5...0.2.0
diff --git a/smbus2/smbus2.py b/smbus2/smbus2.py
index a4b3392..1a2209c 100644
--- a/smbus2/smbus2.py
+++ b/smbus2/smbus2.py
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ def write(address, buf):
         """
         if sys.version_info.major >= 3:
             if type(buf) is str:
-                buf = bytes(buf, 'UTF-8')
+                buf = bytes(map(ord, buf))
             else:
                 buf = bytes(buf)
         else: