diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 02c08506..03cc66a5 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ repos:
     hooks:
       - id: blacken-docs
         additional_dependencies: [black]
-        exclude: [README.md, paper/paper.md]
+        exclude: ^(README.md|paper/paper.md)$
   - repo: https://github.com/pycqa/flake8
     rev: 6.0.0
     hooks: