diff --git a/news/vox-fs.rst b/news/vox-fs.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4542a9c14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/vox-fs.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+**Added:** None
+
+**Changed:**
+
+* ``voxapi.Vox`` now supports ``pathlib.Path`` and ``PathLike`` objects as virtual environment identifiers
+
+**Deprecated:** None
+
+**Removed:** None
+
+**Fixed:** None
+
+**Security:** None
diff --git a/tests/test_vox.py b/tests/test_vox.py
index 0631601ef..afff5b9a5 100644
--- a/tests/test_vox.py
+++ b/tests/test_vox.py
@@ -125,6 +125,30 @@ def test_crud_subdir(xonsh_builtins, tmpdir):
 
     assert not tmpdir.join('spam', 'eggs').check()
 
+try:
+    import pathlib
+except ImportError:
+    pass
+else:
+    @skip_if_on_conda
+    def test_crud_path(xonsh_builtins, tmpdir):
+        """
+        Creates a virtual environment, gets it, enumerates it, and then deletes it.
+        """
+        tmp = pathlib.Path(str(tmpdir))
+
+        vox = Vox()
+        vox.create(tmp)
+        assert stat.S_ISDIR(tmpdir.join('lib').stat().mode)
+
+        ve = vox[tmp]
+        assert ve.env == str(tmp)
+        assert os.path.isdir(ve.bin)
+
+        del vox[tmp]
+
+        assert not tmpdir.check()
+
 
 @skip_if_on_conda
 def test_crud_subdir(xonsh_builtins, tmpdir):
diff --git a/xonsh/__init__.py b/xonsh/__init__.py
index b6b948aba..73d472940 100644
--- a/xonsh/__init__.py
+++ b/xonsh/__init__.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 __version__ = '0.4.7'
 
 # amalgamate exclude jupyter_kernel parser_table parser_test_table pyghooks
-# amalgamate exclude winutils wizard pytest_plugin
+# amalgamate exclude winutils wizard pytest_plugin fs
 import os as _os
 if _os.getenv('XONSH_DEBUG', ''):
     pass
diff --git a/xonsh/fs.py b/xonsh/fs.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..178140cbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xonsh/fs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+"""
+Backported functions to implement the PEP 519 (Adding a file system path protocol) API.
+"""
+
+import abc
+import sys
+import io
+import pathlib
+
+try:
+    from os import PathLike, fspath, fsencode, fsdecode
+except ImportError:
+    class PathLike(abc.ABC):
+        """Abstract base class for implementing the file system path protocol."""
+
+        @abc.abstractmethod
+        def __fspath__(self):
+            """Return the file system path representation of the object."""
+            raise NotImplementedError
+
+    PathLike.register(pathlib.Path)
+
+    def fspath(path):
+        """Return the string representation of the path.
+
+        If str or bytes is passed in, it is returned unchanged. If __fspath__()
+        returns something other than str or bytes then TypeError is raised. If
+        this function is given something that is not str, bytes, or os.PathLike
+        then TypeError is raised.
+        """
+        if isinstance(path, (str, bytes)):
+            return path
+
+        if isinstance(path, pathlib.Path):
+            return str(path)
+
+        # Work from the object's type to match method resolution of other magic
+        # methods.
+        path_type = type(path)
+        try:
+            path = path_type.__fspath__(path)
+        except AttributeError:
+            if hasattr(path_type, '__fspath__'):
+                raise
+        else:
+            if isinstance(path, (str, bytes)):
+                return path
+            else:
+                raise TypeError("expected __fspath__() to return str or bytes, "
+                                "not " + type(path).__name__)
+
+        raise TypeError("expected str, bytes or os.PathLike object, not "
+                        + path_type.__name__)
+
+    def _fscodec():
+        encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+        if encoding == 'mbcs':
+            errors = 'strict'
+        else:
+            errors = 'surrogateescape'
+
+        def fsencode(filename):
+            """Encode filename (an os.PathLike, bytes, or str) to the filesystem
+            encoding with 'surrogateescape' error handler, return bytes unchanged.
+            On Windows, use 'strict' error handler if the file system encoding is
+            'mbcs' (which is the default encoding).
+            """
+            filename = fspath(filename)  # Does type-checking of `filename`.
+            if isinstance(filename, str):
+                return filename.encode(encoding, errors)
+            else:
+                return filename
+
+        def fsdecode(filename):
+            """Decode filename (an os.PathLike, bytes, or str) from the filesystem
+            encoding with 'surrogateescape' error handler, return str unchanged. On
+            Windows, use 'strict' error handler if the file system encoding is
+            'mbcs' (which is the default encoding).
+            """
+            filename = fspath(filename)  # Does type-checking of `filename`.
+            if isinstance(filename, bytes):
+                return filename.decode(encoding, errors)
+            else:
+                return filename
+
+        return fsencode, fsdecode
+
+    fsencode, fsdecode = _fscodec()
+    del _fscodec
+
+    def open(file, *pargs, **kwargs):
+        if isinstance(file, PathLike):
+            file = fspath(file)
+        return io.open(file, *pargs, **kwargs)
diff --git a/xontrib/voxapi.py b/xontrib/voxapi.py
index 49eb5d719..ba45ed970 100644
--- a/xontrib/voxapi.py
+++ b/xontrib/voxapi.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import builtins
 import collections.abc
 
 from xonsh.platform import ON_POSIX, ON_WINDOWS
+from xonsh.fs import PathLike, fspath
 
 # This is because builtins aren't globally created during testing.
 # FIXME: Is there a better way?
@@ -132,7 +133,10 @@ class Vox(collections.abc.Mapping):
         """
         # NOTE: clear=True is the same as delete then create.
         # NOTE: upgrade=True is its own method
-        env_path = os.path.join(self.venvdir, name)
+        if isinstance(name, PathLike):
+            env_path = fspath(name)
+        else:
+            env_path = os.path.join(self.venvdir, name)
         if not self._check_reserved(env_path):
             raise ValueError("venv can't contain reserved names ({})".format(', '.join(_subdir_names())))
         venv.create(
@@ -194,6 +198,8 @@ class Vox(collections.abc.Mapping):
         """
         if name is ...:
             env_paths = [builtins.__xonsh_env__['VIRTUAL_ENV']]
+        elif isinstance(name, PathLike):
+            env_paths = [fspath(name)]
         else:
             if not self._check_reserved(name):
                 # Don't allow a venv that could be a venv special dir