“Whenever Marci questions her mother she gets the same answer as if it’s the f i rst time she is hearing the question. “Child everybody need a junk drawer. You never know when you might need some of this stuff ” We throw things away never knowing how valuable they are.” Marci thinks the only place for that stuff is the trash can.”
– an excerpt from the book
ARPress is honored to publish The Junk Drawer: A Place for Our Dreams by Rickey Alan Smith. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.
There’s something about The Junk Drawer that sneaks up on you. At first glance, you might think it’s just another coming-of-age story set in the South, but Rickey Alan Smith’s novel has a heartbeat all its own. It takes readers back to late 1960s Memphis, a city trembling between change and chaos, and introduces two groups of teenagers, one Black, one white, whose lives collide in ways that are both painful and hopeful.
Rickey Alan Smith is a seventy-two-year-old A/A male born and raised in Memphis. He is married in a blended family with two daughters, three stepdaughters, and one stepson. Rickey is fortunate in that he has had several careers. He retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2000. Following his retirement from the BOP, he spent fourteen years as a probation officer in Memphis, TN. He joined the U.S. Army Reserves in 1975 and served one tour in Iraq before retiring in 2006. Finally, he served as a chaplain for seven years at Methodist Hospital in Memphis, TN, retiring in 2021. Rickey is an associate minister at the Tabernacle of Praise Christian Church in Memphis, TN. He loves to swim, read, write, and listen to jazz, and he is currently a mentor in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Mid-South.
The story opens in the shadow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, a moment that forever changed Memphis and, really, America. Through these teens, Smith explores what reconciliation might actually look like when the world seems intent on division. But this isn’t a heavy-handed history lesson. It’s full of real, tender human moments, the kind that remind you that even in the middle of heartbreak, there’s still laughter in the park, young love, and dreams too stubborn to die.
Smith calls his book A Place for Our Dreams, and that title couldn’t fit better. He paints a picture of young people learning that hope doesn’t just survive, it adapts. It finds its way through grief, prejudice, and even war. And maybe that’s what makes this story so deeply human: it’s not perfect, it’s not easy, but it’s real.
Rickey Alan Smith isn’t just telling a story about Memphis; he’s telling a story from Memphis. Born and raised there, he’s lived through the kind of experiences that give a story like The Junk Drawer its heart. At seventy-two, Smith’s life reads like several stories packed into one, Army Reserve veteran, federal prison employee, probation officer, chaplain, and minister. It’s safe to say he’s seen people at their best and worst, and that perspective shows up on every page.
After serving in Iraq and working for decades in service-oriented roles, Smith seems to have carried one central truth with him: people are complicated, but they’re capable of incredible things. His writing reflects that, it’s grounded, compassionate, and quietly wise. When he’s not writing, he’s mentoring kids through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mid-South, swimming, reading, or listening to jazz. (Honestly, that last one makes perfect sense, there’s a certain rhythm to his storytelling that feels a lot like jazz: steady, soulful, and full of improvisation.)
In a world still wrestling with the same old divisions, The Junk Drawer feels strangely current. It’s not about politics or preaching, it’s about people trying to understand each other and learning that dreams, no matter where they come from, deserve space to grow. Smith’s debut doesn’t just revisit the past; it offers a quiet nudge toward the kind of empathy that never goes out of style.
If you’re looking for a story that mixes heartache with hope, history with humanity, The Junk Drawer might just surprise you. It’s a reminder that even the messiest parts of our lives, like that junk drawer we all have, can hold something worth keeping.
The Junk Drawer: A Place for Our Dreams by Rickey Alan Smith is now available for purchase via the ARPress Bookstore.