Louisa (Louisa May Alcott) talks about the theme of a novel with a house full of sisters, no father present, one of them dies and it begins on Christmas. This is the theme of her 1868 novel Little Women.
Louisa is spit-balling ideas for a novel, and mentions "Some dude chasing a whale," then dismisses it as boring. This is the theme of Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby Dick.
In real life, Emily Dickinson and Louisa May Alcott never met. However they were alive at the same time and they did both live in Massachusetts.
Sue sings In The Bleak Midwinter but the poem it is based on wasn't published until 1872, while the show is set in the 1850s.
Louisa May Alcott did indeed write the kind of sensationalist literature she recommends to Emily in this fantastical episode, and made a modest income from it to support her family, which was her driving force. This was before she wrote her wildly popular Little Women series, which was loosely based on her own life.