We carry out an analysis of the existence of solutions for a class of nonlinear fractional partial differential equations of parabolic type with nonlocal initial conditions. Sufficient conditions for the solvability of the desired problem are presented by transforming it into an abstract non-autonomous fractional evolution equation, and constructing two families of solution operators based on the Mittag-Leffler function, the Mainardi Wright-type function and the analytic semigroup generated by the closed densely defined operator −A(⋅). The discussions are based on the fractional power theory as well as the Banach fixed point theorem in the interpolation space Xpυ (0⩽υ<1, 1<p<∞).