Stark Young (Como, Mississippi, 1881 – Fairfield, Connecticut, 1963) was an American painter, although he is remembered mainly for his literary criticism, drama and novels. His painting was part of a varied career that also included teaching, translation and essay writing. The available sources do not describe his painted work in detail, so his activity as a painter is poorly documented.
Born in Como and raised in Oxford after his mother died in 1890, he studied at the University of Mississippi and at Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree in English in 1902. In 1906 he published his first two books, a poetry collection and a verse play, and he then devoted much of his work to dramatic criticism, which brought him considerable recognition. His novel So Red the Rose (1934), set during the American Civil War, became a bestseller and was adapted into a film the following year.