I am one of the people who enjoy reading the autobiographies prior to the piece of literature or poetry. I find many similarities in the writer's life and the characters adventures. Other similarities are not as blatant as location or marital problems but using their work to express their feelings towards society at the way their characters interact with others and the way they are treated. .
The easiest explanation is that it is easier to write about what you know. Many authors that have had affairs have written about a character and their mistress or their marriage that they are unhappy in. Others simply use the location they are in or a location they have been to as the setting of their story. I am in favor of this, because I think that by knowing what you are writing about, you have a little more validity with your readers.
Willa Cather is the first example I found in the reading we have completed. "The Sculptor's Funeral" is a story is about a man who left his home town and did not return until his death. His body was returned "home" on a train to his strange family for the funeral. I have read that this story doesn't really have a plot but is "only representation of character." .
To me, the story was about accepting people, even with their abnormalities or strange behavior. The mother was abusive towards the servants and the five men were not very accepting of Harve Merrick even though he was dead. If Cather was a lesbian, it is very possible that she felt ostracized because of it and felt that she was not accepted either. Cather could have felt misunderstood by her parents, as did Harve, leaving home in pursuit of higher education, as did Harve Merrick. Cather was attempting to show her audience how poorly people can be treated when they are not understood. She might have felt this many times in her life.
Anzia Yezierska is another example of her work having similarities with her life.