The fentanyl crisis in the United States began around 2013, with a sharp increase in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Primarily affecting states like Ohio, West Virginia, and New Hampshire, the crisis has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, making it the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history.

The fentanyl crisis has been explored in contemporary American poetry, memoir, and fiction as a symbol of systemic neglect and the devastation of the opioid epidemic. Poets and writers from affected communities have documented the personal and social toll of addiction, creating a poignant literary record of grief, loss, and the failure of public health and policy.