diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-windows.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci-windows.yaml
index 6d5923eb187..3fff13179ff 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-windows.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-windows.yaml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        python-version: ["3.6", "3.7", "3.8"]
+        python-version: ["3.6", "3.7", "3.8", "3.9"]
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout source
@@ -33,10 +33,10 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install tornado
         shell: bash -l {0}
         run: |
-          if [[ "${{ matrix.python-version }}" = "3.8" ]]; then
-            conda install -c conda-forge tornado=6
-          else
+          if [[ "${{ matrix.python-version }}" = "3.6" ]]; then
             conda install -c conda-forge tornado=5
+          else
+            conda install -c conda-forge tornado=6
           fi
 
       - name: Install distributed from source
diff --git a/distributed/utils.py b/distributed/utils.py
index 30044740f64..949b39cf523 100644
--- a/distributed/utils.py
+++ b/distributed/utils.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 import html
 import json
 import logging
-import multiprocessing
+import multiprocessing  # noqa: F401
 import os
 import re
 import shutil
@@ -71,6 +71,12 @@
 
 
 def _initialize_mp_context():
+    import multiprocessing  # noqa: F401
+
+    if not WINDOWS:
+        # For some reason this is required in python >= 3.9
+        import multiprocessing.popen_spawn_posix
+
     if WINDOWS or PYPY:
         return multiprocessing
     else: