"[3][4][5] Ruddock was born in Ottawa and raised in the Eglinton Avenue Road area of Toronto.
He then set out for Newfoundland and Labrador, interning in St. John's and serving as District Medical Officer in Belleoram, Fortune Bay.
[4] Subsequently, he married the artist Cheryl Ruddock and they have raised their family of four children in the Yukon, Montreal, and Guelph, Ontario.
[4] In Canada, Ruddock's writing has been published in The Dalhousie Review, The Antigonish Review, Fiddlehead, Prism International, Grain, sub-Terrain, Event, and Exile.
His short story, “How Eunice Got Her Baby” was published in The Journey Prize Anthology in 2007, and the Canadian Film Centre has made a film adaptation of the same story, narrated by Gordon Pinsent, directed by Ana Valine.