This fall, Burlington will once again hold an annual celebration of literature. The Green Mountain Book Festival, a newly minted nonprofit, will bring authors and readers to the Queen City’s downtown from September 23 to 25. So far, only the headliner has been announced, but she’s a heavy hitter: Ruth Ozeki. The American-Canadian author of the novels My Year of Meats, A Tale for the Time Being (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize), and last year’s The Book of Form and Emptiness is also a filmmaker and a Zen Buddhist priest. Kim MacQueen, president of the Green Mountain Book Festival’s board of directors, said by phone that “We’ve got a small board of volunteers who are working really hard to bring [the fest] together.” She emphasized that the event is a book festival with a focus on recent releases, not a craft festival where authors meet to talk shop — at least for now. “We need to try to start small and do it really, really well,” she said. The new fest emerged from a confluence of local arts organizations, MacQueen said. Elaine Pentaleri, then president of the thriving Burlington Writers Workshop, approached Mike DeSanto, co-owner of Phoenix Books, and Barbara Shatara of the Fletcher Free Library. They’re now festival board members, along with author and writing instructor Angela Palm Hopkins, author and podcaster Shelagh Shapiro, and John Flanagan of Burlington City Arts. Flanagan got MacQueen involved to help form the board, which also includes treasurer Lisa Hughes. The plan is to create an executive director position within the next three years, MacQueen said. Around the first of the year, the board started talking logistics. With Phoenix Books serving as majority stakeholder and sponsor, the organization has applied for grant funding from BCA, the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities, MacQueen said. The festival will have six to eight hours of programming on Saturday and Sunday, most of it in the Fletcher Free Library. Ozeki will appear at Burlington City Hall Auditorium on Saturday afternoon. “My absolute favorite author happened to be available, and I was in a position to bring her to Vermont, so I’ve been over the moon ever since,” MacQueen said. The board is still narrowing down lists of potential guests, she added. Sunday will be “mostly dedicated to poetry.” While authors in various genres and categories will be included — including a panel on graphic novels — don’t…