Scott Lax

 

Writer and senior professor of practice Scott Lax is in his tenth year at the Cleveland Institute of Art,where he teaches writing, specializing in screenwriting. Scott is the recipient of the 2025 Dan Tranberg Award for Teaching Excellence.

 

A graduate in English from Hiram College, Scott has been a recipient of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bernard J. O'Keefe Scholarship in Nonfiction; the Sewanee Writers Conference Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Fiction; six journalism awards for essays, columns, and features; and four first place film festival awards, including winning Midwest Filmmaker of the Year at the Cleveland International Film Festival in 2002.

 

Scott received a Certificate of Congratulations from the City of Cleveland for his body of work in 2002 and was inducted into the Chagrin Falls High School Achievement Hall of Fame in 2016.

 

The Denver Post called Scott's first novel The Year That Trembled "powerful" and one of the year's "milestones in fiction." The Boston Herald called the feature film that he produced, based on that novel, "memorable and touching."

 

He adapted the novel into a two-act stage play, called 1970, which ran for two weeks in the fall of 2023 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre. Before that, it was produced under the name The Year That Trembled at Cleveland's University School in 2003 and 2013.

 

Of his second novel, Vengeance Follows, which Lax adapted as a screenplay, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Ron Powers wrote, "Mesmerizing and masterful … 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." The Midwest Book Review called the novel "a minor masterpiece of suspense and human nature and pronounced him, "A master wordsmith of the first order."

 

Scott has since adapted Vengeance Follows as a screenplay and is producing a feature film version of his novel with Rob Mayes, who will also direct and play the lead role. The film is currently in development.

 

Scott has also written for many organizations such as Comedy Central, ESPN, and Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians, where he also acted as a writing coach. He is a professional speaker and has worked as a speech writer for corporate, community, and social justice leaders.

 

A professional drummer since the age of 13, Lax has performed with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bo Diddley, among many musicians locally and nationally.

 

 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

 

TEACHING & SPEAKING

 

2025 – Scott Lax was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Dan Tranberg Teaching Excellence Award. This award was created in the 2019/20 academic year through the work of the Faculty Senate, along with the President's Office and OAA. The Dan Tranberg Teaching Excellence Award is presented to a current non-ranked faculty in recognition of teaching excellence at CIA. (May, 2025)

 

2010 - The Hub City Writers' Workshop of South Carolina awards the second annual Scott Lax Prize in Writing to Bertrice Robinson. The Scott Lax Prize is a full-ride, one-week scholarship to the Wild Acres Writers Workshop in North Carolina. This award was established in 2008 by Hillcrest Publications of Spartanburg, S.C., "in recognition of novelist Scott Lax of Ohio."

 

2001 – Scott Lax gave the Commencement Address for Hiram College Class of 2001 (May 2001)

 

FILM

2002 - Midwest Filmmaker of the Year, Cleveland International Film Festival

 

2002 - Producer's Award, Winner, People's Choice, Cincinnati International Film Festival

 

2002 - Producer's Award, Winner, Best Regional Feature, Cincinnati International Film Festival

 

2002 - Bessie's People's Choice Award, Burlington, VT City Arts, Favorite Film

FICTION

February 14, 2010 - Scott Lax's short story, "Sales Call," won 2nd Place for MUSE Magazine's 2010 Literary Competition.

1999 - The Year That Trembled, a Novel named Vermont Book of the Year, Runner-Up.

Dec. 1998 - The Year That Trembled, a Novel, named of of 1998’s “Milestones in Fiction by Denver Post.

1998 - Sewanee Writers’ Conference (Univ. of the South), Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Fiction

NON-FICTION

March, 2011 - In the Ohio Professional Writers 2011 Communications Contest, Scott Lax won First Place for Writing for the Web, Columns or Commentary

May 22, 2010 - In the Ohio Professional Writers 2010 Communications Contest, Scott Lax won Second Place for "Original Columns, General."

May 16, 2009 - In the Ohio Professional Writers 2009 Communication Contest, Scott Lax was awarded:

1. First Place for "Original Columns, General"

2. First Place for "Feature Story, Magazine"

3. Second Place for "Special Series, Print Media."

June 2008: Ohio Excellence in Journalism Award, statewide competition, sponsored by The Cleveland Press Club, Honorable Mention, Best Single Essay, Open Print

1993 - Bread Loaf Writer’ Conference (Middlebury College)

Bernard J. O’Keefe Scholarship in  Nonfiction

1994, 1995 - Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Staff Scholarship

 

GENERAL

2006 – Scott Lax was inducted into the Chagrin Falls High School Achievement Hall of Fame (Oct. 6, 2016)

 

2002 - City of Cleveland Certificate of Congratulations for body of work.