Scott Lax was born in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, raised in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and graduated with a B.A. in English from Hiram College. Before he became a full-time writer and educator, Scott was a salesman, as well as a professional drummer who drummed with Bo Diddley, among many other musicians.

Scott is a full time lecturer in Creative Writing at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he has taught screenwriting, fiction, and nonfiction since January 2016. He was the 1992 Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bernard J. O'Keefe Scholar in Nonfiction and the 1998 Sewanee Writers Conference Walter E. Dakin Fellow in Fiction. In 2014, the “The Midwest Book Review” deemed Scott, “A master wordsmith of the first order.” Scott continues to lead workshops and present at colleges, high schools, libraries and writers’ conferences across the country.

Scott is the author of two novels, VENGEANCE FOLLOWS, called “A minor masterpiece of suspense and human nature,” by the “Midwest Book Review." Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and NY Times #1 Bestselling author Ron Powers wrote of the novel, “Mesmerizing and masterful . . . Aching suspense . . . Gets inside the head of a lethal sociopath while maintaining a loving evocation of a quiet Ohio town with a Richard Russo–like respect for the human soul.”

Scott's first novel, THE YEAR THAT TREMBLED, was named one of 1998’s “Milestones in Fiction” by the “Denver Post." In 2016, the The “Norwegian American Weekly” wrote of the newly released softcover version of the novel, “Powerfully written, hauntingly beautiful, and touching, 'The Year That Trembled' is a vivid word picture of the troubling times young people faced living in the Vietnam War years."

Scott is also an award-winning short story writer, a produced playwright, an award-winning nonfiction essayist, columnist and features writer, and a film and television writer.

Scott Lax was awarded four first-place international film festival awards for his role as source-writer and producer for “The Year That Trembled,” a feature film based on his novel, including the 2002 "Midwest Filmmaker of the Year" by the Cleveland International Film Festival. “The Boston Herald” wrote of the film, “Memorable... beautifully reflects the depth of experience of the late 60’s and early 70’s... a touching glimpse into the lives of young people enmeshed in the political and emotional climate of the times.”

Scott resides in the Chagrin Valley in Ohio with his wife, Lydia, with whom he has a 10-year-old son, Finn Scott. Aside from his teaching at CIA, Scott recently completed the screenplay adaptation of "VENGEANCE FOLLOWS. – October 26, 2021