Rod is the award-winning author of 4 works of humorous literary fiction – RUFF (national bestseller + long listed for the 2025 Leacock Medal for Humour + winner of the 2025 Silver Medal for Best European Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards), an interconnected short story collection GRIN REAPING (long listed for the 2023 Leacock Medal for Humour + 2022 Bronze Winner for Humour from Foreword Review INDIES + a Finalist for the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Humor/Comedy + long listed for the ReLit Group Awards for Best Short Fiction of 2023) KINMOUNT (long listed for the 2021 Leacock Medal for Humour + winner of the 2021 Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards) and A Matter of Will (finalist for the 2018 Northern Lit Award for Fiction). All with Latitude 46 Publishing.

His short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in a variety of literary magazines including Broadview, Cloud Lake Literary, Blank Spaces, Exile, HighGrader, and the anthology 150 Years Up North and More. He was a finalist for the 2021 Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize.

Rod is a popular author and moderator with literary festivals, including, most recently, the Toronto Arts and Letters Club, the Literary Press Group of Canada, WritFest, and the Book Drunkard Festival. In the spring of 2025, he was Writer in Residence at the Toronto Reference Library.

Rod has also directed/produced over 150 stage productions to date including 18 adaptations of Shakespeare. He was the 2009 winner of TV Ontario’s Big Ideas/Best Lecturer Competition for his lecture “Adapting Shakespeare within a Modern Canadian Context.” In the early years of his career, he was an Assistant Director for the Stratford Festival and was the recipient of the festival’s inaugural Jean Gascon Director’s Award.