diff --git a/src/main/java/com/redfin/sitemapgenerator/SitemapGenerator.java b/src/main/java/com/redfin/sitemapgenerator/SitemapGenerator.java
index e627faa..b88e066 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/redfin/sitemapgenerator/SitemapGenerator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/redfin/sitemapgenerator/SitemapGenerator.java
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@ package com.redfin.sitemapgenerator;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
-import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream;
@@ -193,9 +193,9 @@ abstract class SitemapGenerator<U extends ISitemapUrl, THIS extends SitemapGener
 			if (gzip) {
 				FileOutputStream fileStream = new FileOutputStream(outFile);
 				GZIPOutputStream gzipStream = new GZIPOutputStream(fileStream);
-				out = new OutputStreamWriter(gzipStream);
+				out = new OutputStreamWriter(gzipStream, Charset.forName("UTF-8").newEncoder());
 			} else {
-				out = new FileWriter(outFile);
+				out = new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(outFile), Charset.forName("UTF-8").newEncoder());
 			}
 			
 			writeSiteMap(out);