The fictional Maine town in Stephen King’s “It” is Derry. The town is the primary setting for the novel’s story of the Losers’ Club and the shape-shifting entity commonly known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Derry is presented as a fully realized community with schools, neighborhoods, a library, a downtown area, the Barrens, and an extensive sewer system. The Losers’ childhood encounters with It take place there in the late 1950s, and the adult characters return decades later when the creature’s cycle of violence begins again.
King uses Derry in several other works, making it one of the central locations in his fictional universe. He has said that Derry is essentially his fictional portrayal of Bangor, Maine, although the stories give it an independent geography and history. The town was first mentioned in the 1981 short story “The Bird and the Album” before becoming a major setting in the 1986 novel “It.”
Readers sometimes confuse Derry with Castle Rock or Jerusalem’s Lot, two other recurring fictional Maine communities. Those towns also appear in King’s fiction, but “It” is canonically centered on Derry.