Marilynne Robinson is a liberal Calvinist from Idaho who has said that all experience is narrated by fate; James Carroll is a Catholic reformer from Chicago who once denounced Pope Benedict XVI as a fundamentalist. When Carroll and Robinson meet for a discussion at the Folger Shakespeare Library, they may plumb spiritual depths usually left undisturbed by book talks. Still, both Carroll and Robinson are comfortable in that typically secular sphere: In 2014, Robinson released Lila, the third novel in her Gilead trilogy and a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award, and Carroll won that award in 1996 for An American Requiem, a memoir. What truly sets Carroll and Robinson apart is their unabashed faith, which infuses their fiction and nonfiction alike. Read more >>> Marilynne Robinson reads with James Carroll at 7:30 p.m. at the Folger Elizabethan Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. $15. (202) 544-4600. folger.edu. (Kriston Capps)
EAT THIS
For its latest “test kitchen” series, Latin-Asian restaurant Zengo will feature special Mexican-Korean dishes inspired by a recent trip to Guadalajara. Look out for beef cheek albondigas (meatballs) with chipotle tomato sauce and cotija cheese on a warm baguette; kimchi tofu soup with cabbage, guajillo broth, and tortilla strips; and spicy Korean-style squid with rice cakes, dried shiitake mushrooms, scallions, gochujang, and sesame. The dishes are priced from $8 to $14, and there are new cocktails to pair with them. The Korean-Mexican menu is only available during dinner beginning at 5 p.m. through March 31. Zengo, 781 7th St. NW (202) 393-2929. richardsandoval.com/zengodc. (Jessica Sidman)
OH AND ALSO
Performer Brian Quijada presents his autobiographical one-man show Where Do We Sit on the Bus?, which chronicles a Hispanic third-grader’s confusion about his position in society after a civil rights lesson, at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. 6 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. Free.
The Goethe-Institut begins its series exploring Georgian film with a screening of Blue Mountains aka An Unbelievable Story, a bureaucratic satire set at a publishing house in Tbilisi. 6:30 p.m. at 812 7th St. NW. Free.
Canadian electronic act Operators performs at DC9 with local synth-pop act Pleasure Curses. 9 p.m. at 1940 9th St. NW. $10–$12.
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