Before the twentieth century, Guatemala's literary heritage was defined primarily by a sixteenth-century work, Popol Vuh, a Mayan creation narrative and account of world history. The twentieth century, however, expanded the literary base of Guatemalan culture with the work of such writers as Enrique Gomez Carrillo, Rafael Arevalo Martinez, Mario Monteforte Toledo, Omar Castaneda, and 1967 Nobel Prize winner Miguel Angel Asturias.

Central and South American literature has been deeply influenced by magic realism, a style of writing that incorporates magic, myth, dreams, and the supernatural into otherwise conventional and realistic fiction. Magic realism became popular after World War II, and its Latin American roots are most closely associated with the work of Argentine Jorge Luis Borges and Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Many contemporary Latin American authors, including Chilean Isabel Allende and Guatemalan Omar Castaneda, utilize elements of magic realism in their fiction. Some scholars suggest that...